


Bonds

by WingedLadyColette



Category: Naruto
Genre: Alternate Timeline, Alternate Universe, F/M, Konoha bashing, M/M, Protective Uchiha Itachi, Uchiha Itachi Being a Good Brother, Uchiha Itachi-centric, Village Building, leaving Konoha
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-07-17
Updated: 2020-10-17
Packaged: 2021-03-05 00:20:28
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Graphic Depictions Of Violence, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 37,039
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25325293
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WingedLadyColette/pseuds/WingedLadyColette
Summary: Someone so much smarter than Itachi had once said, save one child, save the world. This path walked by a guilt-ridden young man, a broken teen, a dead man, a scarred boy, the heir to a Hokage's legacy, a girl with nowhere to go and an heiress with nothing left to lose. *Village building fic*
Comments: 22
Kudos: 68





	1. Come Together

Someone so much smarter than Itachi had once said, save one child, save the world. But Itachi didn't save anyone. Honestly. He probably did so much more damage than he did saving. All of the bad that he's done in his life can't be balanced out by the meager good.

It was a mistake. He didn't mean to take them with him. He's not a kidnapper. He's not a monster that rips families apart – well, aside from his own, he supposes – yet he did. For two families. Stole their children from them.

"We want to be here," they had assured him. But that might be Stockholm Syndrome talking. No, in fact, he's certain of it. He's betting on it. Nothing either of them could say would ever make what he did okay. Because while they were pretty accepting at the time with a bit of resistance, they still weren't really given a choice.

Plus, what did a bunch of eight-year-olds know?

He was supposed to kill Sasuke too, because of the coup de tat. With the fact that it's near impossible to sift through the entirety of the clan to figure out who all is involved in the coup and who isn't. Not that anyone in their right mind would believe that little Sasuke would have anything to do with this at all, but Danzo's impossible timeline wouldn't allow Itachi anything more than simple speculation and a very simple limitation on who lives and dies.

Regardless of what Danzo wants, Itachi and the Hokage made a vow. Itachi would spare all of the children younger than ten. And the Hokage would help protect them.

Sasuke was supposed to be safe regardless. That was the only one that Itachi absolutely would not lay his hand against. He never spoke allowed to anyone but the Hokage. He admitted that he knew that it would be a mission failure, and he knew that, but he couldn't say it aloud because he wasn't going to let anyone stand in his way of protecting his precious little brother.

He was supposed to live in the village after Itachi left. He was supposed to be a hero who would bring honor back to their bloodstained, traitorous clan. He was supposed to be great. He wasn't supposed to vanish that night. He wasn't supposed to go missing the night his family died. He wasn't supposed to be one of four children that went missing that night. But maybe, in order for it to make sense, he simply has to start from the beginning.

To the weeks leading up to that night – the night of the Uchiha massacre – to the many years that followed, were allies and siblings and acquaintances and friends find themselves and save the world. This path walked by a guilt-ridden young man, a broken teen, a scarred boy, the heir to a Hokage's legacy, a girl with nowhere to go and an heiress with nothing left to lose.

Maybe they weren't all supposed to bond when they did.

"I'm home!" Sasuke's voice echoes through the house, pulling Itachi's eyes from the scroll sitting in his lap to look over at the door leading into his bedroom. He doesn't move and holds his breath, listening to the sounds of footsteps through the house. He recognizes Sasuke's steps, but there is two - no, three - others with him. It's unusual for Sasuke to bring home guests, and judging by the steps, their young, or light at least.

The Academy only started a few weeks ago, so it's not out of the ordinary that Sasuke made friends, it was just... unexpected. It's nice to see Sasuke laughing and playing around with other kids. Itachi never brought classmates back to his home, seeing as he was so much younger than his own and he was out of the Academy relatively early and off to war. He can't pass up the chance to see his brother living the life that he never got to.

"Nii-san," Sasuke says, spotting his elder brother peering into the living room. Three other little heads turn in his direction. Two girls and a boy. "I didn't know that you were home."

"Huh? Oh, it's you!" the little blond boy exclaims, pointing over at Itachi.

Sasuke glances over at him. "What? You know my brother, Naruto?"

"Yeah! He helped me out last week. The old man at the market was being a real asshole! He was jacking up the prices to his products." Naruto grins up at Itachi. "He helped me out. He got me some food for free!"

"Wow..." a little Hyuga girl says softly, looking between Naruto and Itachi, eyes wide.

While the other girl, one with a shock of pink hair, looks at Naruto, paper thin eyebrows pulled together. "Why was the old man in the market jacking up the prices?" She blinks innocently.

Itachi frowns at that, knowing why that old man in the marketplace was being so cruel, but couldn't understand why he felt like he should be. The Nine-Tailed Fox inside of Naruto. Itachi knows about it. He's known about it for years. Certainly, he wasn't supposed to know about it - seeing as something as important as that was kept secret - but he had overheard a report from one of his cousins to his father in regards to Naruto. His cousin had nothing kind to say about Naruto either, but his father was quick to dismiss him, not sharing the common belief that Naruto is a monster.

That he's the fox.

Since then, Itachi had taken to watching the boy, curious enough to want to make his own decision on the matter. He can faintly, faintly remember that day. A dark shadow that stretches for miles in all directions. So massive it blocked out the full moon blazing in the sky. He remembers holding Sasuke to him, so small and frail against his body, as a roar rocks the world around them, shaking him to his core. Sasuke's little mouth was inches from his face, and Itachi couldn't even hear him screaming until the rumble came to a stop.

So he was interested in the boy who was only a few short months younger than his little brother. So whenever he caught wind of the boy, he would watch and make up his own mind about the little blond. He has decided that Naruto and the Fox are not one and the same. So whenever the boy needs his help, if he can, he does whatever is necessary. Like the instance the blond was talking about. It is absolutely repugnant of that shop owner to deny a hungry child food by upping the price of his goods for that child in particular.

But Itachi has seen the little Hyuga girl before too. She is the heiress of the Hyuga clan. She's always so quiet and shy that she tends to try her best to blend into the background in order to avoid gaining any attention from anyone. But whenever they both happen to be a party hosted by the clan families, Itachi enjoys spending his evenings entertaining the young girl. It's been a few months now and he thinks he's built relatively good rapport with the little girl. She smiles daintily when she catches his eye.

So he has.

And that little pink haired girl... yes. She was the one that Sasuke has a baby crush on. Well, if he were to ask Sasuke, he was just curious about the girl with bright pink hair, but if let be as it is, soon enough it might be an actual crush. Luckily, Sasuke is the second son. He's not like Itachi. If he wanted to, he could marry whomever he wanted. He could marry for love if their father wasn't such a stickler - which hopefully he wouldn't.

At least Sasuke would get to be with who he wanted to be with. Itachi... well, he has been engaged since long before he could remember. It's not that he doesn't like his fiance, he does, but he's just not in love with her. Not that it matters. He will do what he must for the sake of those he cares for.

"Hello," Itachi says, looking between the four young kids.

"This is my nii-san," Sasuke says with pride, and Itachi's heart swells at the bashful smile sent his way. "Itachi-nii."

"Hello again," Hinata says softly, bowing her head with respect. Itachi more read her lips than heard her. Halfway across the room is too far for her light voice to carry.

"Hello..." the pink haired girl says, a deep blush working its way across her cheeks. "I-I'm Sakura... Sakura Haruno..."

"Nice to meet you, Itachi-nii, I'm Naruto! Naruto Uzumaki!" The blond grins his way.

Itachi smiles faintly at them. If this happened - more children, or even just these three - were to come over more often and liven up this dreary home, he would be happy. The Uchiha are too traditional. Too self-absorbed into what everything means for the clan. The clan isn't the only thing that matters. It's this right here, the moments shared with others, even if they aren't of the same blood that matter. The bonds forged with others.

That's why all the clans came together. To build relationships with one another. Love - both romantic or platonic - and of brotherhood. Something offered to war-torn families that they wouldn't otherwise get the chance to have. Or, maybe Itachi is romanticizing it.

Itachi wants Sasuke to be happy with other kids his own age. So seeing this, it makes Itachi happy too.

"What are we up to, Sasuke?" Itachi asks, stepping over to the couch to peer over it at the four younger kids.

Sasuke pulls his backpack up onto the table between the four of the students, pulling out a couple of pieces of paper, riffling through them. "We are doing an assignment and we are in a group together."

Intrigued, Itachi asks, "What is the assignment?"

"Someone who we admire," Sasuke says. "We have to research them, list out their accomplishments and talk about their lives."

Itachi never got to do anything like that when he was in school. He went through his time in the Academy so quickly that he didn't get to do things like that. Well, a war was going on, so he was shown what he didn't know, given a bit of time to learn it, before he was pushed through the system when he proved that he could do it and out into the real world.

Feeling silly for being so interested in a simple school assignment, Itachi backs off a bit, but was a touch curious and had to ask, "Who are you going to do?" All sorts of people came to mind for him. The previous Four Hokage, ancestors from the Uchiha or Hyuga clans, or maybe officials from the Land of Fire, oh! Or maybe they could do someone from the Uzumaki clan that helped fund the building of their village.

But this isn't his assignment. He's not needed to help. But he has to back off more.

"We aren't sure yet," Sasuke says. "We were given a list of a few examples but..." he trails off looking down at one of the slips of paper on the coffee table in front of him, biting at his lower lip in thought.

"But...?" Itachi prompts.

"Sasuke doesn't want to do someone that everyone else is..." Sakura says softly. She peaks through her pink hair at him, then back to Itachi."

Itachi can understand that. If he was given the choice, he would probably pick someone more obscure too. It makes this more interesting if they have to tell about these people in class with their fellows if there are more people than what everyone else is doing. Sasuke is much like Itachi in that regard, although unfortunately, it's harder to find decent, trustworthy, information on someone who is more obscure.

"We could do the Fourth Hokage," Naruto exclaims, excitement in his big blue eyes. "He's my idol!"

"Everyone is going to be doing him, he was on the list," Sakura says, looking over at the blond.

"That's what Sakura was saying, Naruto-kun..." Hinata says softly. The stare he sends her way is a glassy-eyed one, either he didn't hear her or for some reason, her words didn't register with him. He blinks slowly back at her like he doesn't understand. She stares back at him equal parts confused and worried for him, but not sure what to say.

"Well," Itachi says slowly, "I'll leave you to it. Mother and Father won't be home for a few hours, Sasuke, so let me know if you need me. I'll be in my room." He'll give them some space. He doesn't want to hover over them while they're working.

Sasuke chews on his bottom lip, staring up at his big brother with pitiful eyes. "Nii-san..."

Itachi stares back at him, heart warming at the sight of his little brother's expression. He could never say no to Sasuke wanting his help unless he had a good reason for it. Itachi isn't really doing anything too pressing, and who knows how many more of these moments he'll have? Perhaps somehow Itachi is trying to live vicariously through his little brother in this regard, but he wants to help is Sasuke wants him to.

"Sasuke..." Itachi says back, smiling faintly at his baby brother.

"Can you help us?" Sasuke asks, offering a cute smile to try and charm Itachi into doing what he already intended on doing.

Itachi nods, walking around the couch to sit on the floor between Sasuke and Hinata and starts going over it with them. It's fun going through all the options, giving the pros and cons to them and offering them what little bit of information he knew about each person. He ended up getting so into it, a few hours later, he found himself at the library with them. They all raced off and grabbed books about someone that they were interested in and brought them to the table in the corner of the library to go over them and vote some out.

Sasuke and Naruto were already pretty used to them, and while Hinata was relatively comfortable with Itachi, she wasn't so much with everyone else, and it appears that she's paying special attention to Naruto. Sakura, though, was all nerves and shy for a while there but finally seems to be coming out of her shell. Itachi's not sure why both girls are so shy, but it's nice to see them starting to come out of their shell.

But it's starting to get late and while they narrowed down a bit on who they want to do; Toka, the Senju secretary to the First and Second Hokages and one of the few women within the two founding clans that was given the rank of Shinobi, Mito Uzumaki, wife of the First Hokage and a world renown seal master, Kagami Uchiha, who was a close ally to the Second Hokage and even did battle against Kinkaku and Ginkaku, the two brothers that ultimately killed the Second Hokage and Sakumo Hatake, who killed himself a few years prior but was someone to admire for his dedication to his peers over the mission.

An interesting batch to choose one, but they still have a few days to decide who they want to do their report on. But now they have a few people to ponder over. It's late by the time they put all of the books back, so Itachi, Naruto, and Sasuke walk both Hinata and Sakura home. Hinata dips her head a bit when she spots her father walking around the corner of the house, eyes narrowed.

Itachi bows his head low to the clan leader. Sasuke and Sakura follow a moment later while Naruto stares back without any sort of recognition of what he's supposed to do. Itachi puts a hand on his back to force him to bow too.

"F-F-Father..." Hinata mumbles, flinching when his eyes land on her. "We-We-We were ju-just..." she chokes on her words, shoulder bowing inward as she drops her chin to her chest, looking horrified. Okay, maybe Itachi could understand why Hinata was so shy and nervous all the time. Her father's harsh view of the world around him is crushing the sensitive little girl. Itachi knew that she was shy, but he had almost no interaction with the Hyuga clan leader before this moment. Their clans don't exactly get along.

"Forgive me for bringing Lady Hinata home so late," Itachi says solemnly. "They were doing a project at the library."

Hiashi looks at Sasuke, then Sakura and when his eyes land on Naruto and an expression of contempt crosses his face that is like a stab to Itachi's gut. He releases his hold over Naruto, giving the blond the choice to continue bowing or to stand up tall, hating that someone with all-seeing eyes like Hiashi Hyuga couldn't tell the difference between an innocent boy and the beast that lies within him.

This fierce desire to protect both Naruto and Hinata from this man and his stabbing gaze overwhelms Itachi's entire being. He has to take a few deep breaths to stop himself from stealing both of them away and putting them somewhere he could protect them. But of course, he's not going to do that. He's just going to take Naruto away from this compound and pray that Hiashi doesn't destroy Hinata and her self-confidence.

He only got to see a bit more of the real Hinata lurking beneath her quiet and nervous exterior. Today she was smiling and laughing and speaking at an almost regular decibel, but now she has shrunk into herself once more once returning home. It makes Itachi sad because this is the place she should feel safer, but he's not sure that she does.

Itachi watches as Hinata goes into the house, feeling so bad for her, wishing that he could do more to help her. But he didn't know what to do other than to be kind to her and hope that her self-esteem grows in her time away from her father. When things start to go down with the Uchiha, hopefully, Sasuke will be able to be a good friend to her, and she to him.

Maybe he's too self-involved. This has nothing to do with him. He needs to keep to himself. He should be working alongside Shisui in trying to figure out what to do about the growing tension between the Uchiha and the Leaf, but he needed a break. He needed to get away from worrying out of his mind about what he needs to do about the Uchiha. He's got to convince them, somehow, that they need to find their love for Konoha again. That no matter how bad things are, there is no need to lose faith.

But he isn't sure how to get them to see what he sees so clearly. He doesn't want this to end in a conflict between his village and his family. There has to be a way that they can remember the love and loyalty they were supposed to have for Konoha. Today, talking about such influential people during the time of the founding of Konoha has reaffirmed Itachi's belief that they can still find that connection that they once had. They can bridge the gap between both of them and find that peace once more.

But maybe he's just a starry-eyed dreamer.

No, he won't give up on the Will of Fire. He can't give up. He won't give up until it is too late. No, maybe not even then either.

"Who was that?" Naruto asks as they walk away from the Hyuga compound.

"Was that Hinata's father?" Sakura asks, walking onto Itachi's other side. She reaches out and takes his hand, avoiding his eyes. "He's scary..."

Itachi's protective instincts are on overdrive but he stomps them down. He can't just go running off protecting all the kids in the Leaf Village. At least, not one at a time. If he can stop this conflict brewing between the Uchiha and the Leaf, then it will be like he's saving everyone. At least from this disaster. Well, he hopes so. If he can stop this, he's going to remember exactly who he's doing it for. The kids. Sasuke especially, but for all the rest of the kids too.

"Yes..." Itachi says softly. He frowns, wrapping his fingers around Sakura's little hand. "Just keep your distance and be respectful if you come across him."

"Why?" Naruto asks, he folds his hands behind his head and squints ahead of him. "Did you see the way that he looked at Hinata? He looked so mean." Naruto frowns deeply.

"I hope she'll be okay," Sasuke says, scratching the back of his head. "I hope he doesn't give her any trouble..."

Sakura's lower lip trembles. She's genuinely afraid, and Itachi feels so bad. He looks between the three kids with him and the little girl that they already left behind. But this all might just be Itachi being over dramatic.

"It'll be okay, Sakura," Itachi says solemnly. "Let's get you home."

Sakura nods slowly, holding tight to his hand, looking down at the ground as their shadows stretch against the dirt road as the sun sets behind them. They walk in silence, lost in their thoughts. Sakura only speaks to direct them to her house. As soon as they reach her house, Sakura's mom, Mebuki Haruno comes flying out the front door like a bat out of hell.

"Where have you been? Sakura! Come inside this instant!" She reaches out and snatches Sakura's hand.

"I told dad - " Sakura says, but Mebuki is already pulling her to the house.

"You know that you have to wait for me to come home before you go out," Mebuki says, shaking her head. "It's not safe out there for a little girl like you!"

"Ma'am," Itachi says, catching the older woman off guard. She looks over her shoulder at Itachi, blinking a few times like she couldn't what she was seeing. Like she hadn't seen him there. "I'm sorry for bringing Sakura home so late. She's in the same group as my little brother and they were working on an assignment together and I took them to the library to help. It's my fault, forgive me." He bows his head.

"Oh, no," Mebuki says, smiling. "I just didn't know where she was. She's always getting into trouble or hiding out in her room. I just didn't know. I'm glad that she was with you, lord Uchiha." Her eyes flicker down to Sasuke, then to Naruto and her smile drops. "Oh. Is that in the group too?"

Itachi frowns. "He is. And the assignment is important."

She looks unhappy and uncomfortable. "You won't leave them alone, will you?"

Itachi's shoulders slump, feeling a tightness in his chest once more. It shouldn't matter if he was there or not. Naruto wasn't going to do anything because he wasn't a monster. He wasn't a demon. Sakura was fine with him today. "Sure," Itachi sighs, "but it's not necessary. They are fine."

Mebuki looks like she didn't hear him at all beyond "sure". She lets out a long sigh of relief as if it was hanging heavily on her shoulders. "I'm glad. I was so worried."

Why? Itachi didn't ask, but he wanted to. Why do people choose to be afraid of something they shouldn't be afraid of? Why do people choose to hate when they don't have to? Why punish a little boy for something that he had absolutely no control over? Why try to make him into the monster they fear when he's not? When he's just a good little boy.

But maybe Itachi is just biased because he likes Naruto.

"Bye Sakura-chan!" Naruto says, waving. Mebuki turns her nose up at him. "See you tomorrow!"

Sasuke also gives a little, bashful wave to the small pink haired girl. Sakura blushes, waving her free hand a bit in return. Mebuki pulls the little girl inside, shutting the door firmly behind her. Itachi lets out a long-winded sigh, shaking his head.

"Let's go," Itachi says, turning away from the Haruno house.

They walk in silence for a few minutes before Naruto says, softly, "Do I have to go home now?"

Itachi nods, looking down at the little blond. "Yes. It's late and you two have school in the morning. Aren't you ready to go home?"

"No," Naruto says quietly. Sasuke looks around Itachi to the blond. He tilts his head to the side. He's too young to understand. He doesn't know what Itachi knows - what he forgot he knew until just this moment.

"Why not?" Sasuke asks, innocently.

"Sasuke - " Itachi starts to chastise his little brother. There are just some things you don't just ask about. If they offer the information that's one thing, but you shouldn't ask otherwise.

"Because there's nobody at my home, waiting for me," Naruto says sadly. There is sadness in his eyes. Something that Itachi can empathize with. An empty home with no sign of life outside of his own. That must be so lonely. Itachi's not sure which is worse, being somewhere surrounded by people and being alone, or wanting to be around people yet there is no one. To feel like you're alone or to actually be alone.

A sad curiosity.

Itachi looks away, pain in his chest once more. "Naruto..."

"Why don't you come stay with us?" Sasuke asks, innocently. "Then you won't be alone."

Itachi loved Sasuke. Truly, honestly, deeply. He didn't have the preconceptions that adults did. His view on life wasn't colored by hatred. Surely he didn't really understand why Naruto would be going home to an empty house, because that's not in Sasuke's reality. Why would Sasuke ever think that the home was empty because of... what? His parents died? They left him? Itachi didn't know why exactly Naruto lived alone, only that it probably had something to do with the Nine-Tailed Demon Fox.

Naruto brightens up like the sun. "Really? Can I, Itachi-nii?"

Surprised by the new title, it takes Itachi a second to nod. "It's okay with me, but you have to ask mother and father."

Sasuke shrugs. "Sure." It didn't make a difference to him, and Itachi loved his precious little brother for it. He was just so pure.

They were cool about it, Mikoto and Fugaku were. They were stunned at first, seeing the little blond standing in the doorway between both of their sons, but then they looked at each other, sharing a conversation with their eyes, before nodding and agreeing to let the boy stay for the night and to even have dinner with the family.

Itachi honestly thought they were going to say no. Considering all of the bad blood going on within the Uchiha clan and the rest of the village - plus considering how the adults treat Naruto in general - he just assumed that they would say no. But they seemed perfectly okay with the idea of Naruto stay - which renewed Itachi's hope that he would be able to convince his family not to turn on the Hidden Leaf Village. Naruto is quick to make himself at home and Itachi's parents are very receptive of him.

Maybe not all the adults in Konoha are so cruel to a boy who doesn't deserve the treatment he's given.

He holes up in Sasuke's room with him after dinner. Itachi heads back into his room, listening to the boys laughing and yelling from next room. Mikoto goes in there for the hundredth time, telling them to settle down, but she doesn't sound too upset. If Itachi had to guess, either his parents really like Naruto, or they are happy that Sasuke is making friends. Or maybe it's both.

But eventually it's time for bed and the boy settle down about an hour after they were supposed to, still laughing and giggling until they are too exhausted to continue and finally fall asleep. Itachi sits alone in his room, reading his scrolls in the moonlight, trying to catch up from his day off that he took. He's not ready to go back to his life dealing with the stress of this rift that has been growing between the Uchiha and the Leaf Village. It raises his stress level through the roof. Hopefully, there is a peaceful solution at the end of the road, but only time will tell.

A shadow blocks out most of the moonlight filtering in through the open window above where he's sitting. He looks up to see a figure with a dog mask perched on the ledge with his head tilted to the side.

He is decked out in full ANBU armor with a large silver mane practically glowing in the moonlight. He raises a single hand in a tiny wave of greeting as if it was the middle of the day, not well into the night. "Yo."

Itachi offers a thin smile, closing the scroll up quickly, turning toward the older man. "Kakashi-Sempai. You didn't have to come all the way out here."

Kakashi smoothly slips inside, overshooting the bed to stand next to it. He slips his shoes off before sitting down and removing his mask, letting it rest on his thigh, looking at Itachi with a single black eye. His other eye covered by his headband branded with the Konoha symbol.

"You've been a little..." Kakashi hesitates, looking down at his mask, running the pad of his pointer finger along the smooth surface. "Off, I suppose, recently. What's up?"

Itachi shakes his head, picking at a loose thread in his bedsheets. "It's nothing, Sempai. Just stress."

Kakashi huffs, shaking his head. "Yeah right. I don't believe that for a second. I know you, Itachi, and I know that something is deeply bothering you. You and Shisui." He hesitates and Itachi knows this is hard for him. Kakashi doesn't tend to butt into other people's affairs, so it must be especially bad acting on Itachi's part if Kakashi feels the need to interfere.

"It's just clan business..." Itachi says. It's not exactly a lie. It's just enough of the truth that Kakashi didn't immediately call bullshit.

They sit in silence for a moment, just listening to each other breath. Kakashi must have waited for Fugaku to walk his final lap of the perimeter of the house before settling down for the night.

"Talk to me," Kakashi says, turning his single dark eye toward Itachi again. "Whatever it is... well, I don't know if I can help, but I can be a listening ear if anything."

Itachi shakes his head. "I'm forbidden to talk about it."

Kakashi stares back at him, holding the younger boy in place with his gaze. "By the Hokage?"

Itachi nods slowly, looking back down at the loose thread on his bedsheet again. "So I can't say anything."

Kakashi sucks in a deep breath, nodding slowly to himself. "Okay. I understand, but if you need anything, anything at all, just let me know, okay? I'll help however I can. I mean it, you try and face everything alone. You do have help in me."

Itachi smiles faintly. "Thank you, Sempai."

They sit in silence again.

Then, "Itachi?"

The younger of the two perks up at the sound of his name. "Kakashi?"

Kakashi stares through him with a powerful dark eye. "Thank you for looking after Naruto today."

Yes, maybe there is still hope for people.


	2. They weren't supposed to be

Maybe he wasn't supposed to be this close to them.

Sasuke, Naruto, Sakura, and Hinata came back to the Uchiha household again two days later. At school, they had made their decision of doing Toka Senju for their project. Since that first night, Naruto has been staying with the Uchiha. No one official asked or really acknowledged it. The following morning, as the boys were getting ready for school, Mikoto made them both a lunch and asked Naruto if he would be okay with whatever they were having for dinner that night. Naruto was stunned for a second, probably never having anyone ask him that, before grinning broadly and nodding.

"Yep! Sounds great!"

Since that moment, he's been with them. Naruto and Sasuke would go to school together, they would come home together, do homework, have dinner, play around and go to bed. The day following that, Sakura and Hinata came with them so that they could work on their project. As soon as they showed up, they sought Itachi out, who was training in the back and dragged him along to the library to look up more information. Itachi taught them how to make a layout for their project and how to look for more information to help support it. A lot of it would be second-hand knowledge, seeing as she was no longer alive, and while she was one of the few women of that time who knows how to both read and write, she didn't have any known diaries for them to use.

"Should we ask Lord Hokage?" Sakura asks, looking over at Itachi from the other side of the round table they were sitting at in the quiet library.

"What do you mean?" Sasuke asks from right next to Itachi. "Ask him about what?"

Sakura flushes. "Um..."

Itachi smiles. "Go ahead, Sakura. What are you thinking?"

Sakura gulps, looking up at Itachi and Sasuke through long strands of pink hair. "W-well... Lord Hokage is mentioned in these diaries quite a few times as a... um, young man... he probably met her while she was alive. I thought that maybe he could tell us a little bit more about her. I mean... from his own experience." She hesitates, embarrassed. "He probably wouldn't want to talk to a bunch of Academy students. He's the Hokage and busy..." She looks away.

Itachi runs his fingers through his long bands framing his face. "It can't hurt to ask. Maybe we will catch him when he's free."

Naruto bounces to his feet, face lit up in excitement. "Let's go visit Jiji!"

With renewed vigor, Itachi follows the four little kids out of the library and onto the main road leading to the Hokage tower. Hinata takes one of Itachi's hands, while Sakura takes the other. Itachi holds the girls tightly while watching the two boys run around them with watchful attentiveness. They draw a lot of attention and Itachi doesn't appreciate the looks that people are sending Naruto's way. Itachi glares every time one of them catches his eye.

They are quick to look away.

Itachi wished this wasn't his life. He wished that they could live somewhere no one would look at Naruto like he was horrible or disgusting. He was a sweet, innocent little boy who got the short straw in life. He didn't choose this. He didn't ask for this. It was something thrust upon him before he even realized... well, anything. It's not fair. It's cruel.

If Itachi could take him away from this pain and agony, he would.

The Hokage was happy to meet with them. They spent a little over an hour talking with him about what he remembered about Toka. What he was told about her, what he had heard. His experience was invaluable. The Third kept shooting Itachi a pleased look each time the four kids would bow their heads to scribble down what he said so that they could remember for later. The Hokage knows these kids didn't come up with Toka Senju on their own, but he seems pleased that Itachi was helping expand their knowledge on the important people of their past. The more obscure ones.

Itachi can see the sadness in his eyes. The Hokage is seeing a vision of what the future could be if this dispute with the Uchiha is handled nicely. Itachi knew that the Third has been carefully grooming him to become the fifth Hokage. It's why he was given this assignment to deal with his own family. His loyalty is to the village and if he can defuse the situation peacefully, it will show that he has what it takes.

At least, that's what the elders say. The Hokage wouldn't look at him during those meetings. He knew why. They were putting him into an impossible situation.

Itachi knows it. He knows it's going to be hard, but with his closest ally and best friend, Shisui, with him. They will be able to figure this out. They will be able to save both the Uchiha and Konoha. Then... maybe Itachi will have his dream of becoming the Hokage. He honestly believes that he can do some real good for people. Maybe it's hubris of him, but he believes enough to want to give it his best shot.

Itachi and the boys take the girls home. All four of them talking about what they are going to do next, while Itachi holds the hands of both of the girls while Naruto and Sasuke push each other around on the road. Thankfully it has since started to clear out as the night begins to draw near, but Itachi had to keep reminding them to be careful and mindful of the people that are still out and have to scramble to get away from the rambunctious boys.

Once the girls are dropped off - Itachi thought it was better if the boys stayed back so that he wouldn't have to deal with the terrible looks that they give Naruto, and spare the boy from them too - before they all head back to the Uchiha household. Well, home. Yes, since that very first night he stayed over, he's been living there with them. He's basically part of the family at this point.

Once the boys were safe at home, giggling away in Sasuke's room while Mikoto goes to tell them that they have to get back to bed or they are going to be tired in the morning, Itachi sneaks out to go and meet up with Shisui to discuss what they are going to do next.

They meet outside the village, deep in the woods between ANBU patrols. They only have a few minutes, but Shisui has an idea.

"That ability that I've been keeping in reserve," Shisui says, looking around the darkness of the woods around them before turning his eyes back to his younger cousin. "I think we can use that. If I can... convince Uncle Fugaku that siding with the village is our best option. I think that will work. He will be able to convince the rest of the clan to side with him. Then this will all be over, and he'll think that it was all his idea."

Itachi frowns deeply at that. "I wish it wouldn't have to come to this."

Shisui nods. "I know. But it's the only thing I can think of."

Itachi sighs. "I believe you, and I'm not exactly coming up with anything particularly impressive on my end. If this is the only thing that we have, then it's all that we have." He shakes his head, running his hand through his fringe, sparing a glance around to make sure they still have a bit more time before the next patrol makes their way through the two Uchiha's conversation.

"We can tell our plan to the Hokage and the Elders before I head out on my mission," Shisui says, rubbing at the back of his head.

This is the first that Itachi heard of this. "A mission? Where are you going?"

They both turn and start making their way back to the Hidden Leaf, side by side. "The Land of Water. Highly classified stuff, so I won't get the mission details until right before I leave."

Itachi looks down at their feet as they walk. "I see. Be careful, alright?"

Shisui laughs, slinging his arm over Itachi's shoulders as they step onto the dirt pathway that will lead them right back into the village. "Me? Oh, my beloved baby cousin, I am always careful."

Itachi shakes his head but accepts the weight of his cousin. "Right."

"How did the project go?" Itachi asks as the four kids pile into the backyard while he's training a few days after his secret meeting with Shisui in the woods. He pauses, walking over to the porch, sitting down next to Sasuke as the other kids pile around him with their feet dangling over the edge.

After the meeting with the Hokage and the Elders, Itachi got the feeling that something was wrong, but he was ushered out before he could say anything. Shisui admitted that Donzo didn't appear pleased with the plan, but they both figured that it was because he didn't believe in the ability nor did he think that it would be a genuine change that all of the Uchiha would follow. They could understand his hesitance, so they didn't push it any further.

Shisui should be home soon. Hopefully.

"It was good," Hinata says, smiling faintly.

"Sensei was really impressed with us," Sakura says softly, grinning up at Itachi from Sasuke's other side. "We were the only group that did Toka Senju-sama."

Sasuke rolls his dark eyes. "Well, duh. Itachi-nii helped us think of her. No one else has him to help them!"

Itachi feels pride swell up in his chest, and he has to stop himself from blushing and smiling at his brother's praise, especially when all of his little friends chime in with their agreements. Itachi reaches up and runs his fingers through his fringe to distract himself for a moment. Once he's calmed down a bit, he looks back over at his grinning little brother.

"When will you learn of your grade?" Not that it really matters. Itachi is just curious. Perhaps too curious. He has so many other things to be worried about. Like Shisui, and the Uchiha, and the village, and Danzo. But he relishes in these simple moments where he doesn't have to worry about those things. They are so rare, so fleeting but Itachi grasps them desperately each time they present themselves to him.

Sasuke shrugs thin shoulders, looking up at him through long, dark lashes. "I don't know. There are two more groups for tomorrow then everyone will have presented. So... maybe sometime next week, I guess?" Sasuke scratches at the back of his head.

"Sensei said Monday," Hinata says, looking past everyone to Sasuke.

Naruto folds his hands behind his head and lays back against the floor, closing his eyes with a sly smile across his face. "Well, obviously we are going to get an awesome grade! That'll show them that I have the potential to become Hokage someday."

Sasuke rolls his eyes. "Yeah, even if we fail, that'll be the best grade you've had all year."

Naruto cracks open a large blue eye while Sakura and Hinata giggle. "Shut up, Sasuke!"

Sasuke grins playfully down at his friend. "I'm just telling you the truth, dobe." He leans back too, laying his hands onto his stomach. A moment later, Sakura and Hinata do too until Itachi is the only one sitting up. Itachi listens to the kids talk behind him, laughing and giggling and poking fun at Naruto, that the blond takes in stride, getting playfully angry at them and firing back with some quick wit.

Kids are so great. Just a few short days together and they are already so close. Itachi hopes that Naruto, Sakura, and Hinata continue to be friends with Sasuke even when the final grade and is given. They all seem like they are getting along so well. Itachi is so happy that Sasuke has friends. He's a bit more sociable than Itachi ever was, but even Itachi found some good friends in his life. Sasuke deserves to have that too. Have a group of people who will watch his back and be his friends whether he wants it or not. Who's to say these three aren't those people for him?

Itachi hopes that they are. Especially if Shisui's plan to convince Itachi's father to... change his view on whether they should turn on Konoha or not doesn't work...

"Itachi-nii...?"

The Uchiha heir blinks away from his thoughts and looks down at the pink haired girl. "Sakura?"

"Can we still come over, even though the project is done with?" She looks through her pink hair at the oldest of them.

Itachi smiles daintily away from them, not wanting anyone to know how happy that makes him. "I would like that." And he would. These children make him happy. They are innocent and pure, given a hard hand in life, all of them, yet they seem so much stronger than anything life has to throw at them.

Maybe their unspoken pain helps strengthen the links in the chain.

Maybe they weren't supposed to be there that night.

Itachi turns right as he appears. He feels his shoulders droop as the tension begins to drain from his body.

"Senpai..."

Kakashi looks down at the bodies around the boy. Bandits, or highwaymen, it didn't really matter. Itachi is holding onto his arm, his pale wrist turning purple. The glove on that hand is gone. He painting and slightly disheveled but otherwise unharmed.

"I'm sorry-" Itachi starts but Kakashi holds up his hand to stop him. His mouth closes and he straightens up a bit.

"Are you okay?" Kakashi asks, stooping down to the fallen men, one by one, making sure they're dead. "It's not like you to be caught off guard."

Itachi leans against a nearby tree, looking down at his wrist, trying to inspect it without jarring it too much and doing further damage. He's not convinced that it's broken but it's definitely sprained. He can wiggle his fingers a bit but he doesn't want to mess anything up until he knows the full extent of the damage. "I am sorry, Senpai, I lost focus..." he says quietly.

Kakashi turns a single, dark eye toward the thirteen-year-old boy. "What happened?"

"Sasuke and his friends came out playing in the forest, I came to get them," Itachi says. "I ran into these bandits on the way. A shinobi was amongst them." He nods toward one of the bodies. "I was careless. I apologize."

Kakashi looks down at the body Itachi nodded to, crossing his arms over his chest, the whisper of his blue sleeves brushing against his green vest accompanies the silence of the night. He looks around the area unable to locate Sasuke. "Is Sasuke okay?"

Itachi nods. "I haven't gotten to him yet. It was by chance I stumbled upon these men."

"Why is he off playing in the forest alone?" Kakashi asks, shaking his head.

Itachi tugs on the collar of his blue shirt, finding it to be a bit torn at some point in the scuffle. "He's not. He's with his friends."

Kakashi glances over at him. "Naruto?"

"Sakura and Hinata, too," Itachi says, pushing away from the tree. "Sasuke and Naruto are late coming home. If the girls are still with them, then they are too. Hiashi and Mebuki will be furious." He shakes his head and starts heading off in the direction that he knows Sasuke is in. He knows that Sasuke has probably taken his friends to where Itachi trains. Where Itachi has taken Sasuke to train him many times before.

Kakashi follows leisurely, with a look on his face that Itachi recognizes. "Not a fan?"

"Of the girls?" Kakashi says. "I don't mind the Haruno girl or lady Hinata. I've met the heiress a few times in passing. But no, I don't have an opinion on either of them really."

Itachi looks down the pathway through the forest. "Ah, so not the girls."

"Lord Hyuga is a tough pill to swallow on the best of days, and Mebuki Haruno is..." he shakes his head. "She's just the worst all the time."

Itachi thinks about just earlier today. Sasuke and Naruto came storming into the house as Itachi was leaving, with a crying Sakura trying to be comforted by Hinata. The boys were angry enough to rant and rave to him about what Sakura's mother had said to her. Something about her not being pretty. Or pretty enough to get a good man. Or something like that. All she heard though was that she wasn't pretty and that had a lot to do with her forehead. Which she is debilitatingly self-conscious over. It's bad enough that the girls at the Academy tease her, but her mother too?

Itachi didn't understand that sort of issue, seeing as his family never put much on personal appearance. So long as they had dark hair and eyes and could activate the Sharingan, that was enough for them. But Itachi did know that women had it harder in the shinobi world - maybe even the whole world - but he felt that Sakura should be too young to worry about that. Yet she was.

Maybe they forgot the time, or maybe this was their way of getting back at Mebuki. Either way, it's dark out and it's time for them to go home. Even Hiashi will be angry that Hinata is late getting home simply for anger's sake. Until Hinabi is old enough to take her sister's position, Hiashi is just biding his time with his eldest daughter. Itachi sees it in the way he flaunts his youngest daughter and leaves the oldest to her devices. That's why Itachi was drawn to her during those parties where the clans could stroke their egos. She was untouched by the wickedness likes to run rampant in parties like this. It's all about being better than everyone else and proving it.

Itachi hated these parties and only went when he knew the heiress of the Hyuga clan would be there.

The way the children are treated in this village by each other is so sad, but the way they are treated by the adults? Sakura? Hinata? Naruto? Itachi can't believe it. He knows there is real potential in people. He believes in the goodness in people. He just doesn't know if they believe in it themselves. If they did, they would be building up the youth, not tearing them down.

"Yeah," Itachi says softly.

"How is your wrist?" Kakashi asks.

He cradles his arm a bit, protectively. "It'll heal." Kakashi sighs so Itachi adds, "Once I get the kids home, I'll go see the doctor. Good?"

"How about I get the kids home and you go to the doctor?" Kakashi offers drolly, giving him a sidelong glance.

Itachi is already shaking his head before the older man even finishes. "No. They are my responsibility. I will make sure they get home safely. Then I will go."

Kakashi sighs, shaking his head too. "You are as stubborn as always. If Shisui were here, he would be able to talk you into it." A pause, where neither says anything, then Kakashi adds, "Have you heard anything from Shisui yet?"

Itachi stares down at the forest floor, worried. He shakes his head a bit. "No. Nothing."

They walk in silence for a few minutes. "He'll be okay. It was to the Land of Water, right?"

"Yeah," Itachi says, turning his eyes forward. "It's been over two weeks and still nothing."

Kakashi doesn't respond. I'm sure he's okay, would be anyone else's next words. But not Kakashi. He's much too practical than that. It's not about placating people or sparing their feelings. It's about reality. Shisui's mission shouldn't have taken this long and the fact that it's top secret, and no one has heard anything yet is suspicious.

Itachi isn't ready to believe that something terrible has happened to Shisui, but he can't help but worry about his favorite cousin, who he sees as an older brother. He hopes that Shisui will come home soon - or at least send a letter to assuage any of Itachi's unease. The longer he's away, the more Itachi is becoming aware of the deteriorating situation between the Uchiha and the Hidden Leaf. Shisui needs to come home soon before the situation fully spirals out of control.

Danzo didn't seem pleased with Shisui's idea, writing it off almost as quickly as the words left Itachi's older cousin's mouth. He has been shooting down each and every idea that they have been trying to come up with to stop the seemingly inevitable meltdown of the situation between the Uchiha and the Leaf Village. If Itachi was any other person, he would assume that Danzo was shooting down all of their ideas because he wanted to get rid of the Uchiha for some reason. Which is just preposterous. He's just worried that they won't work.

But the Hokage agreed to give it a try. So they will, once Shisui returns from is mission.

A thought occurs to Itachi. He looks over at the taller young man walking alongside her. "Senpai, what were you doing out here, anyhow?"

Kakashi blinks, turning to peer through the darkness at the younger boy. "I - "

A series of screams rip through the night. For a split second, Itachi and Kakashi stood frozen before they are both racing through the forest toward the sounds of screams. They bust through the foliage and into the small open space with a tree stump in the center and targets littered with holes from kunai and shuriken and years of use.

Itachi's eyes find Hinata and Sakura first, both huddled together with their backs to him. Then his eyes find Sasuke and Naruto standing next to a figure knelt down on his knees with his body bent over his legs in pain. It took Itachi only a second to recognize the huge Uchiha fan on his back.

Itachi soars past the girls and drops down in front of Shisui, reaching out with his uninjured hand to touch his cousin's shoulder. "Shisui? Are you okay? What's wrong?"

"Itachi-nii!" Naruto gasps.

"Nii-chan!" Sasuke says. "What's wrong with him?"

"Come over here, kiddies," Kakashi says, standing over by the girls. They both jump, looking up at him with wide, scared eyes, but recognize the headband and flack jacket. Naruto obeys, eyeing Shisui worriedly but Sasuke doesn't leave right away.

"Sasuke," Itachi says, forcing the strain from his voice the best he can. "Go to Kakashi, now."

Sasuke hesitates a moment longer, but when Itachi turns narrow, dark eyes toward him, he swallows whatever he was about to say, and leaves to join his friends a few feet back. Itachi grips his cousin's shoulder, feeling the tension there.

"Shisui?"

One of Shisui's hands is covering his face. When he lifts his chin enough for Itachi to get a good enough look at him, Itachi is horrified by what he sees. Shisui is crying tears of blood from one socket. His right eyes is missing.

Itachi gasps in horror. "Kami! Shisui - "

"They're behind me!" Shisui gasps, struggling back to his feet.

Itachi blinks, unable to understand. "Wha - "

"Itachi!" Shisui snaps, opening up his left eye to reveal an angry red Sharingan. "They are right behind me!"

The Uchiha heir activates his Sharingan, looking beyond his cousin in time to see shadows appearing out of the darkness, poised and prepared to strike. Itachi's protective instincts kick in on overdrive as his brain so helpfully reminded him that his baby brother and tiny friends were behind him. And whoever these people were, they attacked Shisui and took his eye from him. One of the worst things someone could do to someone who has a dojutsu. Well, to anyone it would be horrible, but Uchiha actually has eyes with power that remain in the eyes even after they have been removed from the head of the Uchiha.

"Go protect the kids!" Itachi snaps, leaping past his cousin and into the collection of five combatants.

"Now, Shisui!" Kakashi orders, leaping past him too to help the middle Uchiha boy.

Begrudgingly, the half-blinded teen agrees, scooting back toward the kids, looking through his single eye as his younger cousin and Captain protect the five of them while the kids huddle around him. A couple of shaky little hands grab onto his shirt and hold on tight.

Itachi sees red. Not just because of his Sharingan. But the situation. Shisui, his brother and his brother's little friends being in danger behind him, and the people who are attacking? ANBU. But not Black Ops. No, definitely not. This was Root. That could only mean one thing. Danzo.

And the rage that coursed through Itachi almost blinded him. He forgot about the pain in his wrist and his heart. He couldn't believe this. He couldn't understand why this was happening. This wasn't supposed to be like this. ANBU Root was supposed to attack Shisui. They weren't supposed to steal his eye and any chance that they might be able to compel Itachi's father to put this terrible idea of war with Konoha behind them. Who knows if Kotoamatsukami can be done with only one eye? Wait, why would he be thinking about this when it's obvious that someone is betraying them.

But he can't think about that either. Itachi's not sure that Danzo will be able to explain this away, but Itachi has decided. If the Hokage doesn't hold Danzo responsible for this then maybe there is an entirely different avenue for them to take. Maybe instead of attacking Konoha... maybe they can become emancipated from the village. They would have to go through the Land of Fire Daimyo, but they could probably do it, especially if they can prove they are being targeted by the members of the Village hierarchy. Itachi believes that the Hokage will do what he can, but he has to think about the village first.

The only reason the Uchiha didn't want to do that in the first place was that they helped Found Konoha and they feel as though if anyone should leave, it should be everyone else. Itachi doesn't think so. If them leaving stops this conflict, then maybe it's for the best. Perhaps this was the only option that they had all along and he simply couldn't see it until now.

Itachi doesn't want to leave, but he will if he must. They will still be part of the Land of Fire and work alongside Konoha, they would just be a separate entity. Kind of like the Samurai or the Land of Fire Shinobi. Separate, but still on the same side. It won't make everyone happy, but it may be what's best for them all.

Kakashi tried, seeing what Itachi did, that they were fellow Leaf Shinobi, not to kill them, but when one of them make an attempt at the kids and Shisui - specifically Hinata - he lost it. It stopped being about rebuffing them, he just began to kill them outright. Whether they were going to hurt her, kill her, or take her hostage, they don't know nor do they care.

With Kakashi's help, they were able to dispatch the five Root ANBU. Luckily, they were tired from chasing Shisui for who knows how long, and someone still fresh and ready to fight like Kakashi - who is as skilled as he is - was able to take them out with chilling precision. Even with Itachi's injured wrist, which flared up badly in this fight, they were able to defeat them quickly.

Once the dust has settled and no one moves for an entire minute, Kakashi asks, his voice low and cold, "What happened, Shisui?"

"Who were those men...?" Sakura asks, her tiny voice almost swallowed up even by the silence. "Wh-Why did they attack us?" Her little arms are wrapped around Hinata to keep her close after the ANBU made a grab for her and was socked hard in the face by Shisui. So hard his mask cracked down the center as he fell back into a nearby tree and was then taken care of by Kakashi.

"They attacked me out of nowhere, them and Danzo," Shisui says, putting his hand over his bleeding eye. "They stole my eye, said the Uchiha couldn't be trusted. I think they are going to do something, we have to warn Uncle Fugaku."

Itachi hesitates, warning his father would mean admitting that he has been working against them, but his protest die when his eyes find Shisui's one remaining one, fading to black as the tightness of pain etches deeper lines into his face. No, that doesn't matter now. Not after this. They actively attacked the Uchiha. Shisui and Itachi and Sasuke. They endangered the lives of not one, not two, not three innocent people, but four. Kakashi, Naruto, Sakura, and Hinata have nothing to do with this in the slightest but now they are caught in the crossfire.

If Danzo wasn't under orders by the Hokage - and if for whatever reason, he was - then the best the four of them could hope for is death. The worst would be the invitation into Root that no one wants. No, Itachi isn't going to let that happen. He won't force these children, whose lives are already hard enough as it is to varying degrees, to put them through that. No, he won't allow it.

Over his dead body.

"We need to get home," Itachi says to Shisui. "We have to warn my father."

Shisui nods in agreement, holding his side in pain as well. "Yeah..."

"Why did they attack you?" Kakashi asks, turning his single, dark eye between the two older Uchiha boys. "What is going on?"

"Senpai, you should go - " Itachi starts but Kakashi holds up a hand to stop him.

"I'm in this already. The truth, now."

Itachi looks down at Sasuke, Naruto, Hinata, and Sakura. He didn't want this. He didn't want any of this. He couldn't drop them off in their homes now. He couldn't put their lives in danger of being stolen away in the night. Sakura's parents are hardly shinobi and Hinata's father cares for her only so long as she clings to her meager hold on her right as the Heiress of the Hyuga. And Naruto... Naruto isn't safe anywhere. No one but the Uchiha looked after him. No one. The Hokage tried when he could and Iruka Umino would come to see him and was kinder than anyone would have expected, but that was it. These last few weeks have been greater for Naruto than the rest of his life before.

He had a nice warm house to live in with a family that welcomed him unconditionally. He had three square meals a day and all the clothes and love that he could want. More than he's ever had and all of that came from the Uchiha. Itachi, Sasuke, Mikoto, and Fugaku. They all took to him, and they all loved him. Danzo would smear their good deed with the accusation that they were trying to curry favor with the Jinchuriki, but Itachi knew the truth. Somehow, at some point, Itachi's parents fell in love with the boy. They let him stay because they loved him like one of their own.

He reminded them of someone they loved, they had said when he asked a few days into Naruto's initial stay. They knew, if they were patient, Naruto would come to them and no one could be mad about them looking after him.

Itachi didn't understand that in its entirety, but he understood enough to know that someone - or many someones - were stopping Naruto from being with people who would genuinely love him, and not only is that not fair but actively cruel.

Itachi wanted so badly to protect them - all four of them. Sasuke is his baby brother. And he loves him more than anyone else, but the others were important to him too. He would protect them from anything and everything if he could.

But his parents... he needs their help. He doesn't know what to do now. His father will be mad, no doubt, especially given their rocky relationship these last few weeks, but he knows that they will be able to figure it out. Itachi just needs them to tell him what to do. If siding with Konoha isn't an option, and fighting in a war isn't an option, there has to be something else that they can do.

Shisui looks over at Itachi, hesitation is splashed across his face, but also understanding. He's in as deep of trouble as Itachi is. Maybe even more so.

"We need help, Itachi."

"I know," Itachi whispers before looking over at his one-time Captain and friend. "I will tell you everything, Senpai, but you have to come with us. I need to explain everything to my father. You will understand then."

Kakashi almost looks like that isn't good enough, but then he sees the pain in the younger man's eyes, and on Shisui's face, the looks of fear over the four children who are caught in the middle with no idea on what is going on and are terrified. He's the oldest of them. He has to look after them. He's been looking after the two oldest Uchiha since they joined ANBU, and Naruto since before he was born. He's not a stranger to these people.

And he can't ignore ANBU attacking children. He can't ignore ANBU horribly disfiguring one of their own. He can't do it.

"Okay. Let's go," Kakashi relents. "Let's go to the Uchiha."


	3. Left Behind

Maybe they weren't supposed to see what happens when nothing goes the way it should.

Itachi, Shisui, Kakashi and the kids stop outside of the Uchiha compound. Sasuke opens his mouth, about to ask why they stopped when Itachi lowers him from his back and onto the floor in front of him. He lowers Hinata next to his brother, holding a finger to his lips to keep them quiet. Kakashi, who was carrying Naruto and Sakura on his back lowers them too. Shisui leans up against one of the archways leading into the compound to catch his breath. The bandages wrapped around his face are already soaked through with blood.

His skin is gray and his breathing is ragged. While watching him, Itachi's cradling his burning wrist. It hurts from having to support both Sasuke and Hinata on his back. He used that hand to keep Hinata balanced and now it aches terribly, but Shisui couldn't carry either of them. He looks like he's about to pass out any moment now, undoubtedly from blood loss.

"Stay here, Sasuke, and look after Shisui," Itachi whispers, dropping to eye level with his baby brother. "Everyone stay here. We'll be back."

Sasuke frowns at him. "But I thought we were going to see mom and dad..."

Itachi feels the hairs stand up on end. The bad feeling that made him stop in the first place is like cold fingers crawling up his spine. But he couldn't worry his brother and his little friends with his bad feelings. Even if they are true. He had to keep them safe.

"Stay here, Sasuke. Look after Shisui. We'll be back." Somehow his voice is even, with his heart racing and blood roaring in his ears, he knows that it is. Whatever gave Itachi pause, slowed Kakashi down too. He nudges them over to Shisui, giving him a worried look before turning to Itachi.

"We have to go now."

"Nii-san," Sasuke starts.

"Stay with Shisui, Sasuke," Itachi says, straightening up. His voice is still low and even but he feels fear wrap around his heart like a python threatening to squeeze the life out of him.

Little eyebrows pull together. "But Nii-san," Sasuke tries again but Itachi grabs onto his shoulder with his uninjured hand.

"Sasuke," he says, a razor sharp edge to his voice. The little boy's lips seal shut as he stares up at his big brother with worry in his eyes. That wasn't what he wanted. He didn't want to scare Sasuke. He just doesn't want to walk them into whatever terrible feeling is washing over him.

"Itachi," Kakashi says, voice tight.

Itachi straightens up, sparing Shisui another look. His face is still gray and he could be worse for wear. When he looks back at Itachi, despite the pain etched on his face, there is still strength and determination in his single dark eye is unmistakable. He's tired from the mission he was on, the fight for his life and the bloodloss, but he's not down and out. If he has to fight, he's going to.

"I'll be right back," Itachi says to his older cousin.

If this was any other night, in any other situation, Shisui would go with. He would insist they all stay together. But the fact that he's not immediately offering to just come along proves how bad he feels. Itachi wants to stay with him. He wants to make the older boy - who is more brother to him than a cousin - feel better. But he knows that he can't. This bad feeling gets worse by the moment and the more he waits, the more he feels he will come to regret it later.

He can't help himself, though, just one moment more. "Shisui..." he says softly.

Shisui pins him in place with a large, dark eye. "Go. I'll be fine."

Not able to wait a moment longer, Itachi turns toward Kakashi, nods once and the two of them are charging into the Uchiha compound. Right away, as they round the first corner, Itachi's bad feeling peaks out and he spots the first dead body. One of his cousins. Then another, and another, until Itachi's eyes can only find the bodies of his now dead clansmen.

In the back of his mind, Itachi always knew this would have been one of the conclusions to the story of the Uchiha. If they were going to turn on the Hidden Leaf Village, there was always the chance that Konoha would put a hit out on their lives. Any and all involved in the coup de tat run the risk of ending up on that list. The Hokage hadn't wanted that, he wanted to keep this quiet and dealt with peacefully. It's why he approached Itachi about this. It is no surprise to the younger boy. He knows that the Hokage has been watching him, keeping him in mind for the Third's successor. The Fifth Hokage.

And Itachi wanted it. He wanted to be Hokage for the village he loved. It was too soon for it to be anything official, so it's doubtful that anyone other than the Elders would know about it. Just in case someone better comes along or Itachi somehow proves himself unworthy of the position, they don't want too many people knowing about it just yet.

Besides, Itachi is still young, only thirteen years old. He would love to be Hokage, but he wouldn't mind taking it slow and waiting until he has a few more years under his belt. And he would like this drama with his clan to be over with too.

So, he knew if things couldn't be settled peacefully with his clan, then this was a very real possibility. Itachi never entertained the idea, because he was going to do everything he could to ensure that it wouldn't happen. Yet here he is, standing in his clan compound, staring at the dead bodies of his clansmen. Sure, there has been growing friction with his family, as they became more and more aware that he wasn't supporting them in their anger against the village, but he never once wished death upon any of them.

He wanted a peaceful resolution to this. He thought that Konoha had wanted the same. And maybe it does, but Danzo didn't agree.

"Itachi," Kakashi hisses, grabbing roughly at his arm.

The younger boy turns narrow dark eyes toward the older boy. "I know." He felt the emotion drain from him. He can't let himself freeze up. He can't look at these people as his family. They have to be just another group of people attacked and killed. Even if it was in the streets outside their home. In their home village. By the people that swore to help protect them.

Although, this is Danzo. Apparently, he doesn't care about what the village wants. It's his way or nothing. Itachi refuses to believe that the Third has anything to do with this. Not without proof.

Swallowing his pain and fear, Itachi and Kakashi make their way through the compound, through the bodies of the fallen Uchiha and the signs of battle in the form of scattered weapons and a few dead ANBU Root members. The Uchiha were pulled from their sleep or late dinner by death washing over their small community. He can't focus on the faces of his family staring back at him with lifeless black eyes. He can't focus on the young or old. He can't see the small faces of baby cousins, distantly related and barely seen, but younger than Sasuke being clutched in the arms of their mothers or older siblings trying to protect them.

His blood is like ice in his veins.

He can't focus on that. He can't. He can't see their dead eyes burrowing into him. He can't see the accusation on their faces. Blaming him for not being better. For not somehow protecting them from this fate. He's been so focused on stopping the Uchiha from doing anything to Konoha, he never once thought that Konoha would do something to the Uchiha.

What a fool, he is.

He's so blind. He should have known that this could happen. He just... he just didn't think it would. A fool, indeed.

Itachi feels bile fill his mouth at the brutality done to one of his great uncles. A withered old man who could barely see through one of his eyes, and was so shaky he could barely walk on his own with three kunai in his chest and his throat slit. He was a kindly old man that could talk anyone's ear off about his life. About anything and everything in his life. He was always the first to volunteer to look after the kids of the clan so that he could tell them all about his life. The kids loved the slightly crazed old man.

He never did any harm, and despite being an Uchiha, based on his stories, he was never a very good shinobi. He didn't deserve that level of brutality. Anyone who knew him, or even spoke to him once, would have known that. ANBU would have been able to have access to his record and would have known that he hasn't been on active duty into over twice Itachi's lifetime. The would also be able to tell who amongst the Uchiha are combatant, and who isn't.

"These are children..." Kakashi whispers harshly, dark eye narrow. "There is no reason for this..."

"This isn't..." Itachi's eyebrows pull together. This isn't putting down a possible coup de tat preemptively. This is... a slaughter. A massacre. How did this happen? How could all of this have gone so wrong? It wasn't supposed to be like this. It wasn't supposed to get this bad. They were supposed to see the error of their way. They were supposed to see that things were going to get better. They were supposed to do everything they could to avoid infighting. To avoid destroying the fragile balance they had. Things weren't supposed to spiral out of control as it had.

Itachi swallows back the bile in his throat, trying hard to disassociate from the situation but finding it harder and harder to do that. There is a tightness to his chest that is making it hard to breathe. He has to get home and hope that it's not too late to save his parents.

"My parents," Itachi whispers in horror, all rationale being thrown to the wind as he races off down the street toward his home. He can hear Kakashi calling out to him, but his blood is roaring so loud in his ears that he can barely hear anything. His eyes hone in on his home, not oblivious to the dead eyes of his family following him down the street, all the way there.

No one accosted him along the way, which makes him even more worried. The deaths are relatively fresh but didn't happen within minutes of him showing up. This doesn't bode well.

They can't be dead, the thought keeps repeating over and over in his head. His parents deserved more than this. They deserved more than to be slaughtered like animals in their own home when they haven't really done anything wrong. Challenging someone's rule and threatening to do something about perceived mistreatment is straddling a very blurry line between what can be overlooked and what can't. Itachi doesn't believe that things have escalated enough for it to come to this, but apparently, Danzo doesn't see it that way.

As soon as Itachi lands in his backyard, he hears sounds of combat from within the house. Itachi's feet lead him directly into his parents' room to see it destroyed around them. Furniture overturned, blood everywhere and four dead ANBU strewn about the room. Itachi's eyes locate his mother, beaten and bloodied with her Sharingan blazing in her eyes standing between two more ANBU Root with their swords drawn and ready to kill her and Itachi's father, who's holding a bleeding wound on his ribs.

"Stay back," Mikoto snarls, a kunai in each hand. Her eyes flicker past the ANBU to land on Itachi. Her relief is physically palpable at the sight of her eldest son she no doubt feared the worst for. She never knew that he wasn't on their side. She never knew that Itachi had somehow made this night possible. "Itachi!"

Forgetting the pain in his chest and his wrist. Forgetting the images of his dead family behind his eyelids, burned into the front of his mind, he sees red as he throws himself at the two ANBU. He's armed with a kunai, raising it to block the blade of the ANBU on the right. Itachi hears the clank of metal against metal and a bit of pressure before he feels a sharp bite of pain and his wrist gives out.

He has to quickly compensate and duck out of the way before his throat can be slit. He tosses the kunai to his other hand and tosses it at the other ANBU who was mid-turn toward him. The kunai lodges into the ANBU's shoulder while Itachi juts out his leg as fast as he can toward the other ANBU, kicking him into the nearby wall. His wrist is now throbbing terribly and his irritation, betrayal, and rage are on overdrive. He turns his Sharingan toward the ANBU who is pulling the kunai from his shoulder, unable to see anything other than that man slaughtering his clansmen. Men, women, children. People who have no business being blamed for what the clan is trying to do.

Children shouldn't be blamed for the acts of their parents. Never. And the children of his clan were being punished for it. They are paying the ultimate price. Itachi knew this was a possibility, but the murder of children? Innocent children? No, that thought never crossed his mind for a moment. That was never an option. Guilt was supposed to be distributed to those responsible. Not children. Not babies not even old enough to be away from their mothers. Never.

The rage flows through him so strongly that the two ANBU are dead before his mind even clears up. When his mind returns to his body, Mikoto is hugging him tightly, she is smoothing his hair down.

"Calm down, baby. Calm down," she whispers, her voice is strained and shaky.

Itachi blinks slowly, willing himself to push through the pain and betrayal that is washing over him to see the two ANBU's screams of agony being buried by the snarl of black flames that he has no idea where they came from. His breathing is so heavy, his head is getting light. He sucks in a deep breath, forces himself to calm down, and lets the breath out slowly.

Her face is black and blue, blood seeping from her nose and a cut on her cheek. One of her eyes is starting to swell shut. When she pulls away and steps back, she favors her left leg. Itachi spares her a moment to make sure she has no life-threatening injuries, which it doesn't appear as though she does, thankfully, before he turns his eyes on his father, moving between the two burning infernos and dropping onto one knee in front of the man who raised him.

"Father..." Itachi says softly, reaching out to pull his hand away and squint through the moonlight filtering in over his left shoulder to the darkening spot on his father's side. There is a tear in his shirt and an obvious puncture wound.

"The clan," Fugaku wheezes. "The clan, Itachi, make sure that they-" He stops, red Sharingan eyes straining to see his face in the darkness. The horror of what lies beyond the four walls of their home must have played across the heir's face because Fugaku stops what he's about to say. His already pained look deepens and he doesn't even know how Itachi has betrayed him. He doesn't know yet the full extent of how everything went so horribly wrong.

The guilt and the shame weighs like the mountain on Itachi's chest. Itachi can barely breathe, but he fakes it well enough to not just outright panic. Even though he knows, and feels, his world crashing down around him.

Fugaku swallows thickly, looking around as if lost in his own home. All of the tension that has been building between them the last few weeks has fizzled out. Right now, as far as Fugaku knows, they are all on the same side. He doesn't know how Itachi has betrayed him. How he has betrayed them. All of them.

Itachi senses them. He turns around quickly to see another ANBU Root appear in the doorway, his shadow long and dark as he clenches his sword in his hand tightly, a drop of blood sliding down the length of the blade and dripping onto the hardwood floor. Itachi slides around on the tips of his toes, feeling an immense burning in his eyes. He tenses his muscles, like a viper, ready to strike out against this ANBU in a moment's notice.

Itachi can see the muscles along the ANBU's arms tense up to strike before a shadow appears behind him. Kakashi's movements are so fast, they are a blur. He reaches forward, grabbing onto the side of the ANBU's face and twists harshly to the side, cracking it sharply. The ANBU's body goes rigid for a moment... and then limp as his body drops to the ground.

Mikoto gasps, looking down at the body, then up at Kakashi, her face twisted in confusion and weariness, raising the kunai in her hands to fight if she must. "Who are you?"

"Senpai," Itachi says, his voice raspy. He forgot about his former ANBU Captain was there with him. He must have left him behind at some point. But his timing is impeccable as always. Lost, and terrified, he whispers, "What do we do?"

"There has to be somewhere you can go," Kakashi says, stepping over the ANBU's body and into the room. "Somewhere away from Konoha that is safe while we try and figure out what's going on."

"What?" Mikoto says sharply, her eyebrows pulling together tightly. "Leave our home? Where are we going to go? What about Sasuke?" Her eyes widen in absolute horror. In all of the excitement of the night, the realization - and the luck - that Sasuke wasn't home at the time hit her harder than anything Tsunade could have mustered up. "Oh Kami, Sasuke! Sasuke is still out there!" She looks around, frazzled, ready to run the streets looking for her youngest son amongst the carnage, the chances of Sasuke having come home during the massacre is too great to just ignore.

Kakashi holds up his hands. "Lady Uchiha, Sasuke is alright. He's safe with Shisui Uchiha."

She panics for a moment longer before blinking rapidly. She takes a few, shaking breaths before repeating, "Shisui? Shisui is home? Sasuke is with him?"

Kakashi nods. "Yes, my lady."

Terrified tears stream down her cheeks, both from relief and fear. "And Naruto? Is Naruto okay?"

Kakashi nods. "Yes, he's with Sasuke and Shisui. As is Sakura Haruno and Hinata Hyuga."

Her shoulders droop as her hands fall to her sides, kunai dangling loosely in her hands, looking physically exhausted. Her eye is swelling shut. She leans against the nearest wall, looking like she's going to pass out before long.

"Wait, what are we going to do about the girls? And Naruto?" Mikoto asks, looking down at her husband, who's flinching in pain as he tries to lift himself up off the ground, teeth gritted.

Kakashi sighs deeply, looking at Itachi, knowing the same thing he knows. "It's too dangerous to drop them off at their homes just yet. With Danzo's men behind this, we don't want to run the risk of something happening to any of them. For now, the lesser of two evils will be to keep them with you."

Mikoto looks faint. "Oh no..."

"Itachi," Kakashi says, turning his single, dark eye toward the youngest in the room. "Take your family, go back to Shisui and get them out of here. Take them somewhere safe. I will comb through the compound as thoroughly as I can with the time that I have. Danzo will send more reinforcements soon. He's willing to rip the eye right out of Shisui's head while he's still alive, and slaughtering children in their mother's arms. I doubt he's going to leave the job half done. More will come to ensure all of the Uchiha are dead."

"Wait, what?" Mikoto asks. "Shisui's eye is missing? What? Why?" She looks over at Fugaku, the horror written on her face clear as day.

Fugaku's face twists more in pain and distraught. "His eye? Is he after the Sharingan..?" He grunts, holding his side more securely. Itachi can see building pools of blood on the hardwood by his feet.

"Why would he need Shisui's Sharingan?" Mikoto asks.

Itachi opens his mouth, about to spill the beans on Kotoamatsukami, when Kakashi holds his hand up to stop the youngest in the room. "Not now. We can worry about that later. For now, get your family out of here." He grabs out a kunai and slices his finger open. A few quick hand signs and placing his hand on the ground and summoning forth his ninken Pakkun. "Take Pakkun with you. I will track him later if I find any survivors."

Itachi's eyebrows pull together in worry. "Senpai - "

Kakashi stops him with a single look. "Go, it's not safe for any of you here." Itachi is about to protest, that he should stay and help, but Kakashi silences him with a hand. "Go, worry about your family, Itachi. Let me figure out what's going on here. You're parents, Shisui, and those kids need you to be strong now and protect them." He reaches into his pouch and pulls out some bandages, passing them over to Itachi. "Go. I'll see you soon."

"Thank you," Mikoto says, limping to her husband's side, wrapping his arm over her shoulder and trying to support her husband as best she can. But neither of them are doing so hot.

"Okay," Itachi softly agrees. "I'll gather some supplies and we will head out in three minutes."

Kakashi nods. "Good. I'll help get your parents ready to travel. I'll try and figure out a way to hide the fact that they survived, at least for a bit."

Itachi is as quick as he can be. He grabs anything and everything that he can think of. Weapons, medicine of all sorts, bandages, food, water, clothing for all of them, and anything he thought that he could think of that they could need for however long they are away. He even goes into the secret room within their house to get the Uchiha scrolls just in case. He seals all of them into scrolls half hazardously that he will have to sort through later and leaves to look for his parents, knowing that it took him longer than three minutes as he promised.

The two small black fires in his parents room still burn, the bodies long devoured, and it's moved on to the wooden floor. Pouring water on it, experimentally, did nothing. He didn't have time to sit around trying to figure out what to do with it other than leave it for now and hope he can figure out what it is later.

By the time he finds his parents, they are walking down the street with Kakashi. Through his kimono top, Itachi can see his father's chest is wrapped up tightly with crisp white tape as Kakashi tries to support him down the street with Mikoto limping next to them, looking down at their family with a broken look on her face, tears streaming down one side of her face while the other is so swollen it's hard to tell if she's able to cry from that eye. Kakashi mutely passes a stoney, black and blue-faced, Fugaku over to his oldest son to support before disappearing down the dark streets.

But not before Fugaku calls out to him. When Kakashi looks back at him, Fugaku orders, "Destroy every body out there. No more of our eyes falls into that son of a bitches hands."

Kakashi nods and vanishes.

Mikoto rubs at her face as they walk through the dark, quiet night without a word. If Itachi closed his eyes and imagined as hard as he could pretend, even if for just a moment, that everything hadn't collapsed into this pile of shit that they were currently wading through. He could pretend that everything was okay, that it was one of the rare times that Itachi was alone with his parents as they make their way home to Sasuke, who is doing one thing or another, or simply didn't want to come along with them. Everything was peaceful. Everything was okay.

What a wonderful imaginary world. He supposes that it has to be because reality really sucks.

"Mom! Dad! Nii-san!" Sasuke calls out, yelling into the compound at the sight of them. Mikoto hobbles forward before dropping painfully to her knees and holds Sasuke tightly to her, relishing in him being both alive and unhurt. She hugs him tightly, kissing him repeatedly on the face and hair before spotting Naruto with her only good eye watching with his face twisted in worry.

"Come here, baby," she says, holding her hand out for the blond. He's quick to accept her invitation, running into her arms and hugging her tightly.

"Are you okay, Mikoto-okaa," Naruto mumbles in her ear.

She holds them tightly. "I will be, sweet boy. I will." They pull back, both boys looking at her face and seeing how terrible it looks. Naruto looks grim and angry while Sasuke looks visibly upset.

"Mom, your face! What happened?"

She forces a smile without mirth. "We can talk about it later." She pushes to her feet, looking at the two little girls cowering behind the boys. "Oh, darlings." The compassion in her voice is palpable. She wished it didn't have to be like this. These little girls having to come with them simply because the Leaf may no longer be safe for them any longer. She holds her arms open to them. "Come here, girls."

Maybe it's because they are scared. Or maybe these last few weeks have given both girls a good idea of how a mother is supposed to be. Or maybe it's just the instinct of little girls to seek out a strong woman. Or maybe it's a motherly thing, something that calls out to little girls. But either way, both girls run into her arms until she's got a gaggle of kids all around her, clinging to her.

"Auntie..." Shisui steps out of the darkness looking paler than before.

Mikoto squints at him with her one good eye, sympathy and worry written across her face. She takes a deep breath and controls her expression for the sake of the kids, but her voice is sad when she murmurs, "Oh, Shisui..."

"We need to get out of here," Fugaku says through gritted teeth, a mixture of rage and pain splashed across his face. "Kakashi will be able to track us, right?" He looks down at the ninken walking silently in front of them. He's losing blood, and strength quickly. They have to stop the bleeding or Fugaku is going to die. The thought makes Itachi physically ill. He can't think about that right now.

Pakkun nods, sitting down to scratch behind his ear. "Yes, my lord." All the kids stare in wonder, momentarily forgetting the dire situation.

"Then we should go, now," Fugaku says, leaning heavily on Itachi's shoulder. "I know where we can go that will be safe for a short time."

They end up in the Uchiha shrine well into the night. Dawn is just a few short hours away, taking them far longer to get out of the village than they anticipated. Pakkun and Itachi had to do a lot of scouting to get their party between ANBU patrols. By the time they arrive, everyone is exhausted and irritable. Mikoto is quick to make up a make-shift bed in the middle of the shrine for the kids and they only protest a bit before all falling to sleep almost immediately. They asked so many questions on the way, trying to understand, but they were met with only half answers and shushes when it became too dangerous for any of them to speak above a whisper lest they draw unwanted attention.

Itachi sets to cleaning his father's wound - a puncture between the ribs that still hasn't let up - and use his very limited medical ninjutsu to try and seal the wound for now before wrapping it up and hoping that they either find medical assistance elsewhere or are able to return to Konoha soon. Then he moves on to Shisui, removing the new bandages he just put on to clean the wound on his cousin's head before rewrapping it, ignoring his cousin's pathetic attempts to make light of the situation and sending both men to rest and try and regain their strength. Mikoto was stabbed in the leg and suffered a sprained ankle. Her leg wound was already bandaged again and her ankle set and elevated by the time he got to her. She assures him, she's fine while drifting into a pained sleep after taking some pain pills that she shares with Fugaku and Shisui.

Itachi takes a look at his wrist to see it swelling pretty good. He uses his mediocre medical ninjutsu to at least ease the pain in his wrist before wrapping it up tightly, hoping that will dissuade him from bending it - if he can barely move it at all.

It's unspoken that Itachi and Pakkun sit vigil for the rest of the night, near the entrance of the shrine to keep an eye open for unwelcomed guests or Kakashi's return.

"You okay, kid?" Pakkun asks, sitting next to the Uchiha heir.

"No," Itachi says, staring out over the dark forest.

Pakkun huffs, looking down for a moment before turning his dark eyes to the forest beyond, despite his lazy look, he's very alert. If anything makes it's way to them, he'll know it. "Yeah, dumb question. Sorry."

Itachi and Pakkun sit in silence for a long time before Itachi finally asks, rhetorically, just to get it out there, "How could everything have gone so wrong? How could this have been so bad?"

Pakkun doesn't respond right away, debating. When he does, he seems resigned. "I don't know everything going on, but I know enough to have my suspicions. Why would anyone want to kill the Uchiha?"

So many answers came to Itachi's mind; protection, revenge, justification, anger, jealousy, fear. All very good reasons in theory, but the execution of it makes him sick to his stomach. None of those make him feel better. But they weren't meant to, he supposed.

"Greed and power is a good place to start," Pakkun says, pulling Itachi from his thoughts. "People all over the world are obsessed with what they can't have and what should never be theirs. Everyone believes that they are the only ones that were meant to hold all the power. Men that don't are rare. Men like Hashirama Senju are rare."

Itachi stares down at the pug. "What do you mean?" He asks quietly.

"Think about the Demons? The Tailed Beasts?" Pakkun says, looking over his shoulder at Itachi. "They are a great example. Somehow Hashirama Senju managed to subjugate all of the Tailed Beasts, and yet when all of the villages formed, he gave them away because he wanted to stop the villages from fighting with one another. Naturally, we know from experience that it didn't work out that way, but people like that are few and far between. It's why that didn't work." Pakkun shakes his head. "Man, what sort of trouble has Kakashi got us into this time?"

"It's not his fault," Itachi defends the white-haired prodigy. "He's trying to save us."

"Of course it's not his fault," Pakkun says flippantly, staring forward. "Kakashi is too good of a man to ignore people who need him, despite what he says or how he appears."

Itachi already knew that. He knew that better than most people.

"So," Pakkun says slowly, "what's the plan? I mean, if Kakashi comes back and says that this shit show is worst-case scenario? What then?"

"I don't know," Itachi says honestly, rubbing tiredly at his eyes. They are still thrumming, but they don't hurt anymore. He didn't know how to tell the pug ninken that their lives were all destroyed and there is no way that anything can be the same as it was before, and they may never heal from it. It was too heavy a burden for him to face at that exact moment, but he carried with him. The weight of it will be his penance for now. The real punishment will come later.

Now they wait.


	4. News

Itachi is used to the vigilance that days without rest requires. And Pakkun is fresh and well trained, able to stay up the whole night without complaint, so surviving the rest of the night in silence while still awake and alert wasn't too bad. As he watched the sun peak over the horizon and then climb up into the sky more and more, he felt the fatigue wearing down on his shoulders, yet his eyes remained open the entire time. Periodically, he would leave Pakkun alone to go and check on his parents and cousin and see if they needed anything. Mikoto was always, "okay, baby" and Fugaku was in constant agony he wouldn't talk about and Shisui slept through most of the night without waking once.

Itachi keeps feeling the gentle pulsation of pain in his wrist as the night persists. He ignores it, though. The pain medication is needed for his parents and cousin. So he just continues to scan the area with his senses to try and forget the burning throbbing pain. It's been hard but became easier when the kids finally started stirring, he found something else to focus on.

Although, it does open the door to another problem. In all of his very brief preparation for... whatever it is that this is becoming, he got food, but he's not sure if he got enough for whatever is happening. For now, they are okay, and Mikoto doesn't seem bothered as she sets out some food for the kids from the scrolls Itachi has filled. It's nothing extravagant, and the kids don't complain, but Itachi can feel the stress weighing down on him.

He tries not to focus on that. Itachi helped change Shisui's bandages while Mikoto saw to Fugaku, giving him some water and fresh painkillers. But he is looking really, really bad. They have to find a medical shinobi to help them or at least a doctor of some sort. They need someone. Itachi's medical training is the absolute basics and it's not good enough for the injuries his father and cousin has sustained.

Shisui tries to joke, act like he isn't missing one of his eyes from his head, but Itachi can see the pain etched into his face.

Itachi had to sit outside, watching the area with Pakkun lapping up water next to him, listening to his mother gently explain the situation to the kids. They didn't see a lot, and they certainly don't understand what little bit they did see, but Mikoto felt they had to know. At least, as much as she could bear to say. She was going to try and get Sakura and Hinata back home but was worried that it may not be right away. She told Sasuke that they couldn't go home ever again. At least, not in the foreseeable future.

And Naruto is trapped in limbo. He has no one in Konoha. Not really. But a life on the run, which is a very real and horrifying possibility for the surviving Uchiha, isn't much better.

After that, the kids came out to see Itachi, trying to understand it from him. Sasuke's big brother, basically Naruto's too, and someone that Sakura and Hinata look to for guidance, and love. And protection too. So, Itachi tries to explain what happened, even knowing what his mother said. He tries to explain the truth in a way that those little kids can understand, without downplaying any of it.

Itachi can understand his mother's gentle words. She's scared and worried and wants to protect them - even from the horrible truth.

But Itachi feels the responsibility for this burning like a hot iron in his chest.

"Why would Konoha do that?" Naruto asks, blue eyes wide and afraid. "Why?"

Itachi shakes his head. "Fear makes people do terrible things. We don't know who all is behind this attack, but we know some key players. I wish I could tell you why. I wish I understood myself." He turns his dark eyes toward the quiet forest around them, wishing that he just knew all of the answers, but knowing that only Kakashi can provide something for them. Probably not all the answers that they are seeking - not yet - but at least it's something. Or, hopefully, it will be. Whenever Kakashi manages to get out to them.

Hopefully, he's okay.

"So we can't go home?" Sakura asks thin pink eyebrows pulled together tightly. She's scared, not at the prospect of returning to that awful situation that she was living in, but because that was all that she knew. Konoha was her home. It was everything.

"I want to take you home..." Itachi says, even though it's not really true. They just can't be trusted to be safe there. There isn't a lot that Sakura's parents can do for her, and the fact that Hinata's family will only protect her is to prevent someone else from getting their hands on their blood limit makes Itachi sick. He wished so much better for them. He wants to protect them, but he doesn't know how to keep them safe. Especially now.

"Wh-what do we do?" Hinata asks, softly. She taps the ends of her two pointer fingers together nervously.

Itachi had no idea. He didn't want to uproot these kids - although Naruto and Sasuke really don't have much of a choice, they aren't leaving Sasuke there to die, and Naruto just won't be safe there all alone - but there is a slim chance that Sakura and Hinata could be okay. Maybe the problem that Itachi has been worried about isn't as bad - or as real - as he thinks it's going to be.

But he just doesn't know. And he would never forgive himself if he sent them back to their homes and something terrible happened to them. Any of them. But life on the run, or away from a village, is very dangerous. And can be very lonely.

He just doesn't know what to do. He doesn't know how to help.

Maybe he's overreacting. They had to of killed all the Root that had seen the kids with Itachi and his family. Maybe it's safe for at least Hinata and Sakura to go home and he's just thinking too much about this. But then the nagging worry that maybe somebody managed to see them before Itachi and his family was able to get away, may have reported to Danzo is too strong to just ignore.

If something were to happen to either of the girls, he would never forgive himself.

He's stuck in such an emotional conundrum. He wants to do right by these girls, but he's worried that there really isn't a way to make it through this with those girls losing everything. He wished there was an easy answer for this. He's not about to take the easy way out in any regard, but he wished that Sakura's and Hinata's entire lives as they know it wasn't on the line.

Naruto and Sasuke don't have any choice in the matter.

There is no way Itachi was going to leave his little brother behind, no when his life is very much in danger. But the same goes for Naruto, the very same threat to Sasuke coupled with the fact that Naruto could return to his ostracized lifestyle once more without the Uchiha there to help look out for him. So it's easy to accept the unfortunate reality that the boys simply have to come with him. With the girls, it's not so easy.

"Do you want to go home?" Itachi asks, watching as Pakkun walks off into the forest to do his business alone, before looking over to Sakura and Hinata.

Quietly, Hinata asks, "Can you really t-take us home in this situation..?"

Damn. "I'll figure it out," Itachi says softly, running his long, thin fingers through his fringe.

"But..." Sakura looks over at Naruto, who's right next to her for a moment before looking back at Itachi, "I don't want to put everyone in danger..."

"If you want to go home..." Sasuke says slowly, his dark eyebrows pulling together tightly, "Nii-san is offering to try to take you back... not that I can imagine why you would want to."

"Sasuke," Itachi snaps, chastising. Sasuke shrinks a bit under his older brother's gaze, before looking away, pouting.

"It's true. You spent so much time the last few weeks at my house because it's miserable at yours. Your parents aren't nice to you, and that's only when they aren't just ignoring you. I know this isn't nice..." Sasuke ignores the shrewd look Itachi is sending his way, but he does noticeably shrink before pushing on, determined to say his peace, "...but at least with us, you know we are family."

Itachi is just as surprised as the girls are at that. Naruto is nodding in agreement as if he and Sasuke are on the exact same page.

"And besides," Naruto adds, "we can all be together forever! Best friends, all of us."

Sakura and Hinata both share a look with one another.

"We don't have a lot of choice in the matter, do we..?" Sakura asks. "We can't go back with those scary people. They ki... ki..." she swallows, kneading her hands in front herself. "The Uchiha didn't deserve that. What will they do to us..?" She looks between Itachi and the three other kids with them.

"Will it put our fa-families in danger going back?" Hinata asks. She touches the tips of her pointer fingers together, nervously. Her thin eyebrows pull together tightly, no doubt thinking about her little sister. She loves her family, Itachi knows that she does, but she isn't blind to the way they treat her. But Hanabi is too young, and Hinata's little sister. She wants to protect the little girl. Itachi understands that very well.

But he honestly wasn't sure how much danger the Hyuga clan would be in because of this, but then again, Itachi hadn't thought that the Uchiha clan would be wiped out the way that it was either. Who is to say whether or not Danzo is above wiping out not one, but two large clans within Konoha? Itachi certainly has no idea anymore. But he hadn't honestly thought about the dangers Sakura's parents or Hinata's clans would have faced should they return, and Danzo is aware of their minute involvement with Sasuke and Itachi the night of the massacre.

No, he just doesn't know. There is so much he's worried about speculating.

"Maybe," Itachi admits, not wanting to lie to the girls. "I honestly don't know what is going to happen." He hated not being able to offer them at least something. But he honestly didn't know.

"Stay with us," Sasuke says, looking unhappy, no doubt worried about the future and sad about their family. "We'll be okay if we're together..." He looks down at his hands resting on his lap, dark eyes sad and scared.

Unable to stop himself, Itachi reaches out, pulling Sasuke into his side, holding him close. All he could think about is how close he was to losing his baby brother forever. And how close he still is. Same with Naruto, and Sakura, and Hinata.

"I'm sorry," Itachi says, turning his dark eyes toward the forest. "I'm so sorry."

"I'm sorry," Itachi says, bowing his head to his father and mother. "I thought that what I was doing was right..." He shakes his head. "It's no excuse."

Fugaku lets out as deep of a sigh as he can muster with the pain in his torso from the puncture wound. He leans back against the stone steps behind himself, looking past Itachi to the entrance of the temple with Shisui standing guard with the kids sitting around him talking quietly. They are scared, and worried, and confused, but they are taking this so much better than Itachi could have hoped.

It's past noon and still Kakashi hasn't found his way to them. Pakkun isn't worried, and neither is Itachi, just yet, but he will start to worry soon. Hopefully, Kakashi will find his way to them soon and have some news about... something. Until then, Itachi had to tell his father the truth. And his mother. It has been so long since he last confided in his parents that as he was spilling his guts he felt like a little kid again - forget that he's thirteen and still technically a kid - confessing to something silly to his parents.

But this is so much more serious than screwing up a simple mission or forgetting to do a chore his mother asked him to do. This was conspiring against the clan. The clan that he was supposed to lead once he became a full grown adult. He betrayed his future, his family, his clan. Feeling it was terrible, but having to admit to it was even worse than that.

Fugaku rubs tenderly at his side for a moment. "I'm going to try not to be mad."

Itachi can appreciate that. "You have every right to be mad."

Fugaku snorts, then immediately regrets it. "I know I do," he says through gritted teeth. He adjusts the way he's sitting a bit, trying to alleviate the pain but Itachi's not sure he's really able to do it. They need to find a medical shinobi or a competent hospital as soon as possible. For everyone's sake. Fugaku, Mikoto and Shisui. Even Itachi's wrist is still hurting, but that's at the bottom of the list of problems they are facing.

"Itachi," Fugaku says, sparing a glance at Mikoto. She reaches out and takes his hand, cradling it between both of her own, "we weren't going to attack and overthrow the Leaf government. We were never going to attack Konoha."

Itachi blinks a few times, dark eyes wide. "What? But I thought..."

"We were planning a legal exodus from Konoha. It's something that we have been taking the proper steps for weeks to do. It's a right that was promised to all the clans when the village was founded and all the clans came together." Fugaku squeezes Mikoto's hand tightly. "We can legally separate ourselves from Konoha and go to the Capital and become Shinobi of the Fire Country."

Itachi stares, dumbfounded. This was the first of him every hearing about any of this. "We can do that?"

Fugaku nods. "It was a stipulent in the alliance. If we felt that our right as a clan were infringed upon or if we felt that the clan wasn't being respected in the village, we could petition for the Land of Fire country to take over soverignty of our family's rights. When we began being mistreated by Konoha's people and government, I envoked our right to leave and the elders threw a fit." He flinches as he tries to adjust the way he's sitting again.

Itachi stares back at his father, his heart pounding in his ears. "Wait, you're telling me that you told them that you were going to leave Konoha? And you were doing it legally?"

"Yes," Fugaku grumbles, pained.

"We had petitioned the Land of Fire and already recieved word for officials within the government that they were going to set aside lodgings for the Uchiha family. The only thing that we were waiting for was the offical welcome by the Daimiyo," Mikoto says. She pushes her long hair over her shoulder, looking worn and tired. The bruises on her face is getting darker and worse as time is going on. Same with the ones on Fugaku's face.

Itachi can barely remember the last time he saw bruises on his father's face - probably a minor scuffle a few years ago with some culprit of one crime or another that managed to punch or elbow Fugaku in the face. But he's never seen bruises on his mother's face. Never. She had stopped going on active duty when Sasuke was born. All Uchiha women were taught how to fight and defend the home and are welcome to take up active duty for as long as they want, but part of the culture was that they were the defenders of the home. The men went off to war to die, and the women stayed home to care for the kids and kill anyone who came near. That was just how the clan was structured.

Not too much has changed since the end of Sengoku Jidai. The women have more freedom, but that's about it. Not that it matters all that much anymore. As far as they know, Mikoto is the last Uchiha woman.

That leaves this sickening feeling coupled with crippling pain in his stomach. He has to stomp it down.

"But the Hokage..." Itachi says slowly. He keeps thinking about all of the many meetings with the Hokage and the elders. Not once did any of them say anything about that, which he thought would be very important to know. "He never said anything about that. All they talked about was the Coup de Tat. Or, I suppose, what they said would be a coup." He frowns, worry slithering up his chest to his throat like a snake. "Did you tell the Hokage about leaving the village?"

He's not sure what he was hoping for with that question, but Fugaku's "Yes," was met with a lot of mixed feelings. Why would the Hokage claim that the village would be attacked by the Uchiha if he knew that wasn't the case?

"Maybe... Danzo convinced him that wasn't the case?" Itachi offers loosely. He wasn't sure how much of that even he believed.

Maybe it's because he was so tired, or maybe, ironically, this is the most decent conversation Itachi and Fugaku have had in the last few weeks, but Fugaku stares at him hard for a few moments before murmuring, "Maybe." Or maybe, no matter the friction between them, they are still father and son, and regardless of the terrible things that Itachi has done, or would have done, had things been different, they still had each other.

"Father..." Itachi says softly, eyebrows pulling together tightly, "I am so sorry. I didn't know..."

Fugaku sighs. "I know. You're a good boy, Itachi. You always have been. It has always been in your nature to try and avoid conflict if you can. You would have done everything you could have to stop what you thought was a war between your home village and your family." Fugaku pushes his fringe out of his face a bit. "I'm not happy about any of this, but I know how they got you. They would use your lack of interest in conflict to get you to do their dirty work."

Well, Itachi certainly hadn't thought of that as a possibility in the slightest. But now he feels even more unsettled about all of this than he was before. And he didn't think that was even a blip on the radar. His pacifism... he didn't know that was something that someone could use against him like that. He doesn't want to believe that the Hokage played him like that, but that's what his father is insinuating. He didn't know what he thought about that. He didn't want to entertain the idea in the slightest, especially because of what that could mean, but he can't explain why his father would tell the Hokage that they were leaving and somehow it got turned around into a coup?

That can't be something easy to do. It would have to be a really bad mix up or someone intentially crossed the wires. That doesn't bode well.

"You don't think..." Mikoto says slowly, her dark eyes getting even darker with worry. "They orchestrated all of that to make us fight each other? To stop us from leaving? They would rather kill us than let us leave?" The horror and terror written across her face is equal to that bubbling inside of Itachi's chest. It feels like a very real possibility. Itachi just can't believe it.

How could this get any worse? Let's see. The Uchiha clan was slaughtered, Itachi had to unintentionally kidnap three kids, learned his parents weren't planning to overthrow Konoha (which he's willing to believe) but were going to leave and becoming Shinobi of the Land of Fire, his Hokage knew that, someone may have blew this up the get the Uchiha killed, now they are homeless, bannerless and without any options on what to do next. Oh, and one of them is severly injured, one is currently blind from the gaping whole in one eye socket, one can barely stand with her bad leg, Itachi's wrist still hasn't stopped hurting and they have four kids who are trying to come to terms with the idea that not only was a bunch of people killed the night before - Sasuke's entire extended family aside from Shisui - but that the rest of them may never get to return home to Konoha again.

Yeah, Itachi can't quite imagine that this could get any worse. Sooner or later, they are going to have to leave the Land of Fire. Or something. And then where would they go? Certianly not to Suna, who's an ally of Konoha, and definitely not Kumo, Kiri or Iwa, as they are outright enemies or tentative neutrals at best. And the tentative neutral is only Kiri, and that's because they are about to errupt into a civil war and don't have time to deal with anyone else in the world while theirs is falling apart around them.

Itachi is starting to understand that.

"I suppose that wraps everything up, then."

Itachi jumps, turning to look over his shoulder to see Kakashi walking over to them with his hands stuffed into his pocket.

"Senpai..." Itachi says slowly. "You heard all that?"

Kakashi shrugs his shoulders. "Enough to at least understand what's going on. Or at least your side of it. And I'm sorry, but there was no other survivors. Although, I was able to burn any and all bodies that I came across. I can only hope that it was all of them. Or at least most of them." A thank you at this moment would have been disgusting. He crosses his arms over his chest and looks troubled. "Unfortunately, the other side of this isn't so good."

Mikoto and Fugaku share a look. "What do you mean?" The Uchiha matriarch says, looking more worried than before.

"Well, the news is already out," Kakashi says, sitting down next to Itachi. He casts a look over his shoulder at the kids and Shisui, who were all looking in at them, but as soon as Kakashi looked at them, they all looked away. "The Uchiha clan was massacred during the night. There was only one survivor."

Itachi, Mikoto and Fugaku all look at one another. "Who?" They all ask.

"Sasuke," Kakashi says. "All I was able to pick up was that Sasuke was the only survivor of the massacre, but I wasn't able to to get much more than that. Everyone is much more tight lipped about it. Either way, they also revealed the culprit of the massacre."

Mikoto stares, wide eyed. "They revealed the truth? That seems counter productive."

Kakashi looks down at his fingerless gloved hands. "Yeah, well, it depends on who's truth we're talking about, Lady Uchiha. According to what I've been hearing, Itachi was the one that killed the Uchiha last night."

Itachi can barely hear the shout of "what?" from Mikoto, Shisui and the kids, ringing in the room through the blood roaring in his ears. His father gets this stoney face, frosty expression on his face. They... they are using him as a... as a...

"He's the scapegoat?" Shisui snarls, normally jubilant expression twisted in anger and rage. "They are using Itachi as their fall guy? What the hell kind of sick and twisted backwards world are we living in right now? They killed our family and Itachi is taking the fall for it? Are you fucking kidding me right now?"

"What?" Sakura gasps, green eyes wide.

"What the heck!" Naruto yells. "They can't do that to Itachi-nii! They can't!"

"But he didn't do an-an-anything wrong..." Hinata says softly.

"Shisui..." Itachi mumbles, trying to fight through the numb feeling that's filling up his entire being. "It's..."

"Okay?" Shisui snaps, walking into the room, somehow able to glare at the younger boy with crisp white bandages wrapped around his missing eye. "Was that what you were going to say? 'Okay'?" His glare somehow intensifies. "Because I'm pissed off enough, Itachi, and that is only going to make me even more mad. I can't believe this! How dare they do this to us?"

Sasuke runs into the room, past Shisui and into Itachi's arms, hugging his big brother tightly. "It's not your fault, nii-san. It's not!"

"What's worse..." Kakashi says slowly.

"This gets worse," Fugaku grumbles, holding his side as he adjusts the way he's sitting, unable to find a good position that isn't a pain for him. "I can't believe this gets worse."

Kakashi hesitates for a moment, before saying, softly, "I'm sorry, Itachi." He turns a single, dark eye up to the Uchiha heir, who was clutching his baby brother as tightly to him as he dared to stop from shaking. The strain is hurting his wrist.

"Just tell me, Senpai," Itachi says. "What's worse?"

Kakashi sighs, looking trouble. "You were named responcible for what happened to the Uchiha, so they placed you in the Bingo Book this morning as an S-ranked Missing Ninja."

"What?" Shisui, Mikoto and this time Fugaku shouts.

"What does that mean?" Naruto asks, coming over to stand next to Shisui. "What does it mean, Itachi-nii?"

Sasuke pulls back a bit to look at his brother with concern in his dark eyes, wanting to know what that meant to. "It means..." Itachi says slowly, trying to dissassociate himself from the meaning, but finding it next to impossible to do. "It means that they have marked me a traitor to the Hidden Leaf and if I'm captured by them, I will never see the light of day again."

"Oh no!" Sakura gasps, grabbing onto Hinata's hands in worry. "But you didn't do anything wrong!"

"It doesn't matter," Shisui snarls. "The Leaf has bounced any blame on themselves to Itachi. He's their fall guy. They are going to make him the monster to save their own asses."

"But why?" Hinata asks, her voice shaking along with her little body. "Why would they do that?"

The room is silent. So silent that Itachi could somehow hear the sound of Pakkun's light patter of his nails agains the concrete floor. No one had an answer for her. This was way too much for any of them to take in at one time. All any of the adults - and maybe the picture is finally being painted well enough for the kids to understand - is that there is no way for Itachi to get anywhere near Konoha again. Maybe ever.

"I hope everyone is ready to move," Kakashi says, standing up, "and has somewhere in mind to go."

"Wait, you're coming with us?" Itachi asks, halfway between pulling him from his shock.

Kakashi nods. "Yes. I'm in on this too now. Besides, I know too much. I can't hang around especially with Naruto out here. I swore to his parents that I would look after him, and I can't abandon any of you. Not now. I will return to Konoha one day, but I think distance and time is going to be our greatest ally, espeically with Danzo on the warpath. It's far too dangerous for us to remain. I got everything from my house, including my dogs, and stocked up on supplies and anything else I could think of before sneaking out and coming here."

"Where are we going to go?" Sasuke asks, looking over at his father for answers.

"We don't have anywhere to go," Mikoto whispers, horrified.

Sensing something in his former captain's words, Itachi says, "There's more." It's not a question, he knows that there is.

Kakashi hesitates, looking around at all the faces that surround him. All of them hanging off his every word like a lifeline. Kakashi sighs again, rubbing at the back of his head as he stares down at the Uchiha heir. "I'm sorry, Itachi. They put a Kill on Sight order on your file. There won't be any interrigations or capture attempts. They want you dead."


	5. A Miracle

Maybe fate had meant to take them all in different paths than this one.

Thankfully, being the smart cookie that Kakashi was, he grabbed more medicine and the stronger stuff at that, rather than just pain relief pills. Itachi is willing to accept a few to help with his aching wrist now that they don't have a very limited supply and more sturdy binding for his wrist. It's hard to move, but at least it's not hurting anymore. Kakashi takes a look at Shisui, although only having a touch more medical training than Itachi does but looks hopeful, but the grim look on his face was disheartening after seeing Fugaku's condition. Itachi knew it was bad as his father's complexion became more and more ashen.

Kami, they need help. Bad.

Kakashi spent a good deal of time using his meager medical ninjutsu on Fugaku, trying to alleviate some of the damage and slow down the bleeding more and seemed like he did a good enough job that Fugaku got the strength to get up shortly after, but that could be the pain pills kicking in. Itachi hopes that if they keep healing the damage, little by little, Fugaku will be able to get better mostly on his own and they won't have to worry. But Itachi's going to be worried, and Mikoto is going to be terrified until a trained professional says that he'll be okay.

Now, where are they gonna find one of those?

They managed to get a little bit of food in everyone and some cloaks Kakashi picked up to cover them all up before preparing to head out again. No one knew where to go, but away from Konoha was a good start. They decided on going south-west. It was away from Konoha, the Uchiha's biggest enemy and ex-homeland of the Land of Lightning. Hopefully, in the freshness of the attack, Konoha is going to keep it tightly lipped for the next few days, but once it's out, it's out. They need to keep a low profile and get the hell out of the line of fire as soon as possible.

The higher echelons of Konoha know that Itachi wasn't the real cause of the death of the Uchiha. Although, thankfully with Kakashi having gone and burned a lot of the bodies of the dead Uchiha, perhaps there is a chance that Mikoto and Fugaku's survival will go unnoticed. Shisui's too.

What Itachi doesn't understand is how Sasuke comes in. Why would Konoha announce that Sasuke was the only survivor? Is that their way of warning Itachi that they know he took his baby brother with him? That they are going to try and get him back? Like, take him from Itachi? Because that definitely isn't going to happen. Itachi may not have wanted war with Konoha, but he will destroy it to keep Sasuke safe. He will kill every person they send after Sasuke if he has to.

It could also mean that they are trying to save face. Somehow Sasuke is alive, and if Itachi is the big bad monster who killed his family, kidnapped his brother, and needs to be stopped? He's not sure, but it makes Itachi both worried, and mad.

And what about the other kids? Sakura's a child of the Hidden Leaf, she may not be a bloodline holder, but she is part of the future of Konoha and would garner some attention from the higher-ups. And of course, there is Hinata, who is still the heiress of the Hyuga family with unsealed Byakugan eyes. That will put them hot on the list of people the Hyuga are going to be hunting down just for the sake of finding the girl with the unsealed eyes. Maybe love will be involved too. Itachi's not cynical enough yet to believe that there isn't at least a touch of love involved.

But then, of course, there is Naruto. Naruto, who is special. Naruto, who is one of a kind. Naruto, who is treated like a monster for the burden he carries. Naruto, who didn't ask for the cursed Nine-Tails, yet was treated terribly for it. The people won't care that Naruto is gone, maybe they will celebrate it, but the government will. He was one of the few things that kept the Leaf's enemies at bay. They know Konoha has the Nine-Tails, they just have no idea who has it now.

They will do everything they can to get Naruto back. At least that, they know for certain. With Sasuke, it's about pride and notoriety. With Naruto, it's so much more than that.

Itachi isn't going to let that happen, though. He's not going to let them suffer.

"Are you ready?" Kakashi asks, after double checking that everyone was fed and ready to move.

"Yes," Shisui says, rubbing at the side of his head before rolling his shoulders back and turning a single dark eye to the silver-haired man. "Do we know where we are going exactly?"

"No, but we have to get out of the Land of Fire. That's a start," Itachi says, twisting his wrist experimentally for a second, deciding the very dull ache can be ignored. He kneels down and turns around. "Sasuke, hop on."

"Okay, Nii-san," Sasuke says, hopping onto his big brother's back with practiced ease from years of doing it. Itachi stands up easily with the extra weight on his back before adjusting Sasuke a bit on his back and looking over at Hinata.

"Okay, you too, Hinata."

Hinata nods mutely, jumping onto his back when Itachi kneels down far enough for her.

"It's okay," Shisui says. "I'm okay, Itachi. I can carry one of them."

"I know," Itachi says, adjusting to the weight of both the kids on his back. "You have to carry two of them. Kakashi needs to support my father."

Shisui's dark eye lights up in understanding. "Ah. So you weren't going to take it easy on me." He smiles with the faintest hint of mirth. "I should have known you wouldn't treat me with delicate gloves for more than twelve hours."

Itachi smiles back with the same amount of mirth. "You would hate me if I did."

Shisui gives a little half-hearted laugh. "I guess so. It still would have been nice to know you cared." He leans down so Sakura and Naruto can jump onto his back. He takes a moment to adjust them but once they are secure on his back, he turns to look at the other adults in the group.

"I do care," Itachi says softly as Kakashi and Mikoto help Fugaku to his feet.

Shisui stares back at him in understanding that years of them being together created. "I know you do." Kakashi slices his finger open with a kunai, leaning down and summoning his dog pack. The other seven dogs appear in a poof of smoke. The kids "ooh" and "aah" in surprise and curiosity.

"I can keep up..." Mikoto says as Kakashi accepts all of Fugaku's weight onto himself. She holds herself strong despite the hurt leg they all know that she has, but the terrible fact of the matter is that they don't have enough able-bodied people to offer her more help. She will have to keep up on her own and push through the pain. Itachi knows how strong his mother is, he knows that she will be able to do it. He just hates that they can't even offer her a little bit of help. The kids definitely won't be able to keep up and Fugaku won't be able to even jump on his own.

"Let us know if you need to stop," Kakashi says. He turns to look down at Pakkun. "Alright, Pakkun, I'm going to need the pack to be our scouts. We have to move fast, but safe. We are a big group."

All the dogs' heads bob up and down in understanding.

In any other situation, if this was a team of ANBU or even a team of Chunin, they would have waited until nighttime to move out to try and avoid as much attention as possible, but time isn't on their side. While he is okay now, Fugaku is still getting worse as time goes back and eventually someone is going to smarten up and start looking around in pinpointed places, like an old Uchiha shrine. The last thing they want to do is still be there when teams of Leaf Shinobi appear to do some looking around.

Their direction is clear, but their goal is very vague. They will start but running far enough away that the Leaf Village shinobi won't just follow them willy nilly, after that, they will just have to lose any elite tracking team that picks up their trail. They can either lose them - or try to, should the need arise - or kill them if they can't. That's assuming that they get caught. Which they probably will, seeing as they have a handful of injured people and the rest of untrained Academy Students.

It's slow going for hours.

They stop every hour for a break for Mikoto and Fugaku. And on top of all these breaks, they aren't moving very fast either because Mikoto can't on that bad leg of hers. And the kids were getting bored, very bored. Itachi knew it wasn't very fun, considering they couldn't talk because all of the adults were being hyper-vigilant, listening beyond the dogs to make sure nothing sneaks up on them. Nothing.

So, as much as he loved them, the kids were getting on Itachi's last nerves. He loved them, he knew they were bored, and he also knew that they were trying their best not to be distracting, but they were. They were fidgeting and whispered in his ears a lot. He loves them and wants to keep them safe but they keep on whispering like buzzards in his ear and he's already on edge. He felt terrible after shushing the kids about a hundred times, but he felt his patience evaporating quickly.

"You're bored and tired, I understand, but you all have to be quiet, I mean it," Itachi says, his voice razor sharp. It takes everything in him not to glare. He's tired too, he knows that he's been going over two days without sleeping and it's wearing him down, but he can't even risk closing his eyes for a moment for fear that Leaf Shinobi will befall them and he won't have enough time to wake up and get his bearings before his life is in immediate danger.

"Sorry, Itachi-nii," all four of the kids choir back at him, louder than he would have liked. He flinches at the volume and tries hard not to let it grate away more at his nerves.

Mikoto must have sensed that Itachi's patience was beginning to run thin because she suggested that they go down to the road and start walking the rest of the way, at least for a bit.

"We shouldn't," Itachi sighs. "Konoha Shinobi are going to be looking everywhere for us. We may have a few more people than anticipated in this group, but there are enough children to warrant curiosity and ANBU has stopped people for less. We don't want to be caught off guard."

"I know that," Mikoto says, offering a little glare to her oldest son a few feet away on another tree branch. "Trust me, honey, I may not have made it to ANBU but that doesn't mean that I don't know how all of this works. We are all tired, exhausted, actually, and we need to get as far away from Konoha without drawing any attention, but we aren't moving fast at all. We are running in spurts, but this way it'll be constant. Slower, maybe, but constant."

Itachi frowns, adjusting the weight of Hinata and Sasuke on his back. "But Father can't afford us slowing down. We need to find a doctor."

The grim look that crosses Mikoto's face gives Itachi pause, as she turns to look over at Fugaku, expression tight and skin ashen, as he sits with his back up against the trunk of the tree he and Kakashi are resting on. Kakashi is knelt down in front of the Uchiha patriarch, hand glowing green as he tries to undo some of the damage done, but he doesn't look optimistic. Which just furthers Itachi's point, when he opens his mouth to voice it, he stops.

A single, terrified tear slides down Mikoto's cheek as she stares down at Fugaku, fingers twitching at her side. Almost like she wants to reach out and hold onto him tight and never let him go. Like if she grabbed onto him, she would be able to somehow make him feel better by her touch alone.

Kami, please hear him. He will never ask for another favor for the rest of his life. Just please, please save Fugaku. Itachi's not sure what he'll do without his father.

Their marriage was arranged like Itachi's was - Izumi... surely she is okay. She wouldn't have been in the compound, so she may have escaped Root's wrath - but somehow, along the way, they fell in love. Maybe it was the kids, maybe it was natural, or maybe they were in love since the beginning, but Itachi knows that there is love now.

And his father is dying. As much as it hurts him to think that, to see it happening before his very eyes, his mother is staring down at him as if her life is fading with his. She looks like the very idea of the possibility of living without him is absolutely terrifying to her. She is in love with him, and she is watching him die right before her. If something isn't done soon, he'll die. There may be a chance that it's already too late to help him even if they find help.

Apprehension coils in his gut like a viper, and stops him from speaking out against his mother. She knows all too well that the end of the line could be rushing for them faster than any of them are ready for. And the thought is overwhelming. Itachi's not sure what to do. He doesn't know how he can make it without his father. He can't be the reason that Sasuke grows up without one. That would destroy him. Sasuke has already lost so much, he can't lose any more.

The dogs all gather around to hear about what they were going to do next. The scorching Land of Fire heat making all of them pant heavily. Unfortunately, there is nowhere for them to go now. They can't wait out at Kakashi's house every time that he sends them away. They were all stuck together now. A lot more of an odd group with three adults, two teenagers, four kids, and eight ninkens.

What an odd group to see indeed.

"I know," Mikoto finally says softly. The words look like they taste bitter in her mouth, which they sting to just hear. Itachi can imagine how difficult this is for his mother to say, to hear herself say. And while Itachi thinks that they should just keep pushing on, he does know that she has a point. They just can't keep up with it for too much longer. But he just doesn't know if they have much of a choice in the matter. Itachi's point remains the same, Fugaku can't afford for them to slow down.

"Maybe we can slow to a walk for a bit," Shisui says, adjusting the weight of Naruto and Sakura on his back. "Just enough for everyone to regain their strength, then we can speed up. It's evening now, and there is still a good amount of people on the road right now, that won't be the case once night comes. People will start camping or go into villages to try and avoid bandits or highwaymen." He shifts a bit more. "We should use that while we have it."

Kakashi lets out a long-winded sigh, looking over at the other three Uchiha. "We don't have a lot of options. Why don't we walk for a bit to regain our strength? There is no point in arguing about this anymore."

"I'm fine," Fugaku says, pushing himself up onto his feet, despite the look of pain twisting his face and everyone immediately fretting over him. He waves his hand around dismissively, clutching tightly to Kakashi as he holds him steady. "Let's go down to the forest floor."

Itachi didn't like this at all, but everyone else seemed to be in agreement and jumped down to the forest floor, making their way toward the road with the pack of ninken following closely behind.

Itachi hesitates long enough for Sasuke to whisper, "Nii-san?" in his ear.

"It'll be okay, Sasuke," Itachi says, surprised by how he even managed to keep his voice level despite the situation. But he's not going to just go off without them. So he follows after, dropping the kids onto the ground only once they made it to the road. His back ached from carrying both Hinata and Sasuke for so long, coupled with days without adequate rest, but he is able to ignore it. Just another thing to pretend isn't happening.

"Nii-san..." Sasuke asks after a half hour of them all walking alone down the empty streets in relative silence. Thankfully, Sasuke is keeping his voice down that even if everyone wasn't already lost in their own thoughts, they wouldn't be able to hear him too well.

"Sasuke..." Itachi whispers back.

"Is father going to be okay?" Identical pitch black eyes to Itachi's own stare up at him, shining with worry and fear. Itachi hates that look in his little brother's eyes. He knows that it is the reality of the world that they live in, but that doesn't mean he doesn't wish it were so.

Itachi puts a hand on his little brother's head, pulling him closer, wishing that Sasuke wouldn't ask questions that he doesn't know he doesn't want the answer to. It's too cruel. He presses Sasuke tightly into his side, wishing that he could protect his baby brother from anything and everything this world would try and throw at him, but he knows he can't forever. But maybe for just now. Just until Sasuke is strong enough to protect himself.

"Nii-san..?" Sasuke asks quietly, looking up at Itachi from the older boy's hip.

"I don't know what the next few days are going to hold, Sasuke," Itachi says slowly, gripping Sasuke's shoulder tightly. "We are just going to have to play this one day at a time." As much as Itachi wants their father to be alright, to say the words to Sasuke... he's afraid it would taste like a lie to his lips. That might be too much to bear.

They stumble across a campsite a few hours later with other travelers that were willing to share what they had. They were all far enough away from another village that their only option was to stay outside in a large group for the night. Only shinobi weren't afraid to travel in small groups so late into the night. They were relieved though to see some shinobi in the bunch though. The first night was just to keep hidden. They kept to themselves and only gave the bearest minimum that they could to get by. They were a family traveling the roads to a nearby town to visit with more family.

No more explainations, no more details. Most of them were family and could easily pass off as such, but no one questioned the odd ones out. Even Hinata shared enough traits to be loosely passed off as Sasuke's fraturnal twin sister. But no one asked for specifics with Kakashi, Naruto and Sakura. Which was good, because they really needed a place to rest without too much worry. At least, without more worry than they already had.

Itachi was so wound up that even going on days without sleep, when he was relieved of watch by Kakashi, he just went to the tents his little family were residing in, one holding his parents, one holding his little brother and friends, and sat between them. He would just stare out around the sleeping camp, mind racing with fears of ANBU Root circling the trees like vultures, ready to swoop down at any moment and finish the job they started at the Uchiha Compound. It was enough to keep him paranoid and alert all night long.

But when morning came, they opted to stay with the group, finding it better to be cloaked by their sheer numbers alone. They just looked like a big caravan traveling the land and weren't stopped once their full day of travel. The people were nice, despite Itachi's weariness of them. They didn't have a lot to offer, enough found to make sure they made it back home without starving, but everything they had, they were willing to share. They even expressed concern for Fugaku and against his wishes, let him rest on one of the carts with Mikoto by his side.

That was when Itachi started to relax. Good natured people were so rare that they almost seemed too good to be true. But his parents desperately needed the rest, and while the people seemed concerned, they wouldn't prode for answers as to why Itachi's parents' faces were black and blue, why Mikoto's ankle was sprained and why Fugaku was obviously bleeding from a wound on his side.

They were shinobi, and to civilians who didn't know any better, there wasn't a need to push for details.

And nobody uttered a word as they passed the nearest village without stopped. Someone did break away, though, one of the younger men, a year older than Shisui went into the village as they passed to run an errand for Kyobachi and said that he would be able to meet back up with them in a bit, as they took the same route every time they came this way.

While Fugaku and Mikoto along with the kids were settling into two of the borrowed tents for the second night in a row, Itachi, Shisui, and Kakashi spoke with the traveling caravan of people, now that this will be the start of day two with them. Like Itachi, Shisui and Kakashi are starting to get more comfortable. Not enough to relax, but enough to open up a bit more. But they all remain constantly vigilant.

So where are you going to, if I might ask?" Kakashi asks, petting the top of Pakkun's head, who was resting on his lap. The rest of the pack was scattered around the camp, munching on scraps or sleeping. They have had a long few days too.

One of the travelers, a very old man with shaking hands, scruffy beard and mustache with eyebrows so thick and bushy that Itachi can't see his eyes, was the leader of this little band. There is about ten people, mostly young men and women, all traveling from the same village. They all seem to be pretty close to one another and Itachi suspects that they come from somewhere that doesn't see a lot of shinobi.

"We were just coming from the Land of Fire's hidden village, Konohagakure," the old man, Kyobachi, says, rubbing his hands together and staring into the fire between them.

"Oh?" Kakashi says loftily, adjusting the wrapping he has around his head in lieu of his headband. "Heading home now?"

The old man nods, interlacing his wrinkled fingers together. "Yes, it is time for us to return to our home. It has been well over a month since we left. We are all ready to go home. It's not as extravagant as Konoha, or any of the villages in the five great nations, but it's quaint and it's ours."

"Why did you guys come all the way out here if your home is so far away?" Shisui asks, having taken a liking to Biscuit, one of Kakashi's other ninken, and was cradling him on his lap like a baby. The ninken looks to be in heaven.

"They pay the most for our goods," the old man's youngest son, who's Kakashi's age, named Toru, says, handing a plate of broth to his father before sitting next to him. "We don't make the trip often, as we can't usually afford it with how dangerous the roads are around our home, but once we can and we make it to the Land of Fire, it's typically pretty safe the rest of the way to Konoha."

Yes, Itachi has taken dozens of missions cleaning up the Land of bandits and highwaymen since he became a shinobi. They never seem to learn, always willing to risk it, but Itachi was used to it. He can't imagine what it must be like for people who don't live around Shinobi villages who spend a good amount of time cleaning up the roads.

"Is it really so dangerous where you're from?" Itachi asks. "The roads, I mean?"

Toru frowns, shaking his head. "It can be very dangerous."

"Even without a Shinobi Village, shouldn't the Daimyo of your land at least take care of the bandits and highwaymen?" Shisui asks. He pulls a bit at the bandages around his head.

The old man shakes his head. "No, unfortunately, we don't have a ruling Daimyo in our Lands. There was a rebellion fifty years ago that toppled the government and the structure they tried to put in place afterward crumbled into an all-out civil war across the Land. We are just warring states ever since."

Itachi's eyebrows shoot up toward his hairline. He doesn't know a lot about the lands outside of the Five Great Nations, but he figured he would have at least heard about an entire country embroiled in ever lasting war for fifty years now. The Five Great Nations must really be absorbed in their own dirty laundry that they don't really see a lot of what is going on in the outside world. Outside their little bubble, at least.

It's strange to feel so disconnected.

Itachi feels sort of bad for not knowing. He can't know everything and these people sound like they are very much outside the circle of influence that encompasses the Five Great Nations, but it still feels like something he should know about.

Itachi rubs at his face, knowing that it's crazy. He's so tired, though. He's running on days with no rest and on high alert constantly, and he's worn down to the bone. He can barely keep his eyes open. He rubs roughly at them trying to get himself to wake up a bit more, but it has the opposite effect, making it hard to open his eyes again after. Just for a second. Just for a single moment, then he will open his eyes again.

"Sweetheart?"

Itachi jerks awake, heart pounding in his chest as his eyes fly around the fire to see the oldest woman in the group. What was her name? Something that starts with an 'M'? For the life of him, he can't remember what it is. But the woman is about his father's age, face already starting to line with the stress of her life on her forehead and under her eyes.

Kakashi and Shisui are still talking with the old man and his son. Itachi really must have dozed for only just a moment, but it was enough for his heart rate to slow down. The first sleep he's had for a long time. A few days? How long has it been? Itachi's having a hard time remembering just how long. Has it really only been a few days since Itachi's life was turned upside down? It feels like a lifetime has passed since that night.

That night that started out as simple as Itachi going out to look for his little brother and friends who were late coming home. Now they are here, miles from Konoha. Surrounded by strangers and having to entrust their lives and safety to. A bunch of civilians at that. From another land! The were asking so much from these people who have obviously been done so wrong in their lives.

"I just went to check on your parents," the woman says, her eyebrows pulling together tightly, "your mother asked me to come get you. Your father..."

Itachi is up on his feet, flying across camp to his parents' tent, one of the biggest tents, to see Mikoto sitting beside Fugaku, tears streaming down her face as she holds his hand. Itachi's heart drops into his feet. His father's skin is gray and sagging, his eyes sucken in as well as his cheeks. He looks frail and weak and so unlike the man that Itachi has seen almost every day for his entire life. This wilted, frail shadow of a man can't be Fugaku Uchiha. It can't be his father.

Fugaku Uchiha isn't supposed to die like this. This is all wrong. Everything is so terribly wrong. Kami, he prayed with all his might, send a miracle.

They so desperately need one.

Itachi's not sure how long he stood there, staring down at his father with his blood roaring in his ear so loud he dazedly thought that a storm had decended upon them, before he felt something. He's not sure what it was. It was like the feeling of returning to his body. Like somehow, his soul had left his body, leaving him weightless, and then something pulled him back into himself.

People were all gathering around offering to help. They will go get more medicine, despite the pile next to Mikoto. They will get more blankets for him, despite the mountain he is almost buried under. They will fetch him water, despite the fact that he is too weak to drink. They will gather some food, even though he couldn't hold down anything all day.

Everyone is talking, the camp is awaken, the kids are awake - Itachi can hear them crying somehow and while he wants to go to them and comfort them, he can't seem to move. People are trying to ask Mikoto what they should do to help, no one there is a doctor, or has any sort of official medical training. But Mikoto didn't know what to do either.

Kakashi pushed his way through the crowd both inside and outside the tent to Fugaku's side, kneeling down across from Mikoto, pushing chakra to his hands, making them glow green. His face - from what Itachi can see of it - is grim and tight. His father wheezes, somehow still alive but slipping away before Itachi's very eyes.

Something in him snaps at that moment, like a rubber band pulled so taut it breaks, and he turns and runs away. He's not sure how far he ran, or how long, and it only felt like a moment, but those precious seconds were spent praying to Kami to just give them a miracle. After all the crap that they've gone through these last few days, they've earned it. He wasn't going to be stingy about it, they just needed something to go in their favor. And yet here Kami was, trying to take Itachi's father away, as if he hadn't already lost everything else.

Hands on his shoulders stop Itachi, making him jolt hard and fall backwards. His head is spinning from exhaustion, lack of sleep and blood rush. When the spots in his eyes clear up enough, the person who stopped him stands before him, her hands crossing over her chest as she stares down at him with a single, dainty yellow eyebrow perked up in confusion.

"Ah, an Uchiha?" She says, tilting her head.

Someone steps around him, the young man that ran off into the village they passed earlier in the day looks down at Itachi's face confused. "Are you okay?" He asks, kindly, then actually sees the look on his face in the light of the fires they have around camp and horror crosses his features. "Oh no, are we too late?"

A woman next to the blond turns to the young man, "Kota, show us to him."

"Of course!" the young man, Kota, moves passed Itachi, still sitting on the dirt, staring up at the Senju Princess he's only seen once in his life as a young child and can recognize her blond hair darkened by the night and her brown eyes staring down at him blackened by the shadows. She was the same as his memory served. The world's most powerful medical shinobi.

"Lady Tsunade," the woman calls from behind Itachi, "we must hurry!"


	6. Rest

Itachi is frozen to the dirt as Tsunade walks around him toward the tent bursting at the seams. He couldn't believe it, he has to have hit his head when he ran off. He can tell he didn't make it far, but surely he is lying unconscious on the forest floor. There is no way that Kami heard him now, that Kami is offering him the chance to save what remains of his family.

He couldn't save anyone else, and he will have to live with that for the rest of his life.

But if he isn't unconscious on the forest floor just outside the tent his father is dying in, then maybe there is a way that they can make it through this. And somehow still be the type of people that they want to be at the end of it. There is a chance that they can somehow be happy. He's not sure how yet, but being together with his family - and that now includes the three extra kids and Kakashi at this point - was the start. If they can all be together, then he's more optimistic about the future. He just needs his father.

He's not ready to figure it all out on his own. If this situation has taught him anything, it's that he still has a lot to learn before he's ready to be in charge of his own life, let alone anyone else's. Itachi knew that he still had some time before his father was ready to step down, but with all the friction that was going on between them these last few weeks, Itachi was worried that he would have to take over the clan before he was ready for it.

Well, he doesn't have to worry about that anymore. There is no more clan. Five members is a larger family, not an entire clan. They can only maintain their clan status because they are bloodline holders, that's it.

Itachi just... can't believe they're all gone.

"Itachi, snap out of it."

The heir to the Uchiha blinks rapidly, looking up at Kakashi, who was lowered down onto his haunches in front of the thirteen-year-old. Kakashi reaches out and places his hand on the top of the boy's head. "You back with us?"

Itachi nods slowly. "Am I awake?"

"Not surprised you're so out of it," Kakashi says, "you haven't slept in days, right?" Itachi shakes his head, feeling exhausted and tired. "I didn't think so. Lady Tsunade being here is both a blessing and a problem," Kakashi continues. "We have to be careful."

Itachi nods, rubbing roughly at his eyes. "She's really here? Lady Tsunade?"

"Yeah. How they knew where to find her, I will never know."

"Was she... missing?"

Kakashi huffs. "No." Itachi pulls his hands from his eyes to look at his Senpai, peering at him through the spots in his vision. "She's been traveling on her own for many years now. She vowed not to return to Konoha a long time ago, but someone she loved, her cousin on her grandmother's side, named Kushina managed to get her to return for a short while. They were... very close." Kakashi looks away for a moment to let out a sad breath. He looks back over at Itachi, dark eye sad, and continues, "But in the Nine-Tails attack, that was it. She vowed that she would never go back to Konoha again."

Itachi frowns as the last of the spots vanish from his vision, but now his eyes are itchy and heavy. "Did her cousin die?"

"Yes," Kakashi says in a deep, pained sigh. "She died alongside her husband and their unborn baby."

Itachi looks away, sorry to hear that. He may not have known who they were, but so many people died that night. It was one of the worst nights in Konoha's history, and the Uchiha somehow avoided any sort of loss of clan life because almost all of them were out at a surprise meeting before the attack even happened, which was very lucky.

But Itachi was there. So was Sasuke. He remembers that night very well, holding baby Sasuke in his arms as he watched the Nine-Tails darken the sky. With just a single sweep of its hand, hundreds died immediately. Itachi remembers watching pieces of the market distract fly through the air and land on buildings. He remembers the ear-shattering roar of the Nine-Tails and the defiant screams of the Shinobi fighting back.

No one that Itachi remembers personally died - doesn't mean they didn't and he just doesn't remember them - but he does think a lot about the people who did. The faceless people that died in all sorts of unfortunate manners that night. Trapped in buildings, stepped on by the Nine-Tails, getting caught in the wind tunnels formed when it waved its limbs around, and the like.

No one was immune and no one was safe.

Even someone legendary like Tsunade Senju lost someone that night. A couple of someones, it seems.

"I heard over the years that sometimes people would spot Lady Tsunade and alert the Hokage of her location, as she is still considered a Leaf Shinobi, but she wonders freely and is easily lost if she isn't tailed," Kakashi says, resting his elbows on his knees and letting his hands dangle between his legs. "I'm not sure how these people know her, let alone how they were able to find her again."

They fall into silence, Itachi doesn't have any idea what the answer to that is. And even if he did have some ideas, his brain is so fried he can't even focus on that any more than he already has. He is so tired and worn. And Kakashi is right, he's running on days without sleep and he is really feeling it. He was taught different ways of keeping alert for days on end, on missions or in war sometimes it's needed, but none of them are going to hold up any longer. He has to lay down somewhere and rest or he's just going to collapse.

He's surprised he hasn't already.

But he can't yet. He has to make sure his father is going to be okay. He can't just lay down and fall asleep. His dad may be dead by the time he wakes up. That's not going to happen. If this is Fugaku's last day on Gaia, then Itachi's going to be by his side. After everything he's done to ruin the lives of his family, the least that he can do is be with his father in the end. Despite these last few weeks, Itachi loved his father very much and wished this wasn't their reality.

"I had to leave," Kakashi says, "I wasn't doing your father any good being there, Lady Tsunade and the woman with her will be able to do more than I ever could. It's best to let them look after him for now. Unfortunately, while I don't think Lady Tsunade has any reason to return to Konoha, and probably has yet to hear the news as I'm sure the Government isn't ready to spill to the world that the Uchiha are all dead, she's bound to ask questions as to why a bunch of Uchiha is out here away from Konoha."

"What do we do?" Itachi asks, his lips barely moving. He can't think, he can barely focus. He just needs someone else to tell him what to do now. His mind isn't working anymore.

"I don't know," Kakashi admits. "If we were lucky, and let's be honest considering how much worse this could have been we are astoundingly luckier than I would have thought we would be, she won't ask any questions and no one will ask her anything until we have this all figured out."

"But since we aren't?" Shisui asks, kneeling down next to Kakashi with Sasuke in his arms. It takes Itachi a moment to realize his baby brother is crying while clinging to their cousin. Slowly, Itachi crosses his legs and holds his hands out for his brother, who Shisui passes over to him. Sasuke clings tightly to Itachi, wrapping his arms and legs around the thirteen-year-old with all his might, shaking with his cries. Itachi wraps his arms around Sasuke, hugging the little boy tightly to his chest as tight as he can without hurting him.

"I don't know," Kakashi admits. "I don't know what we are going to do."

"Father's going to die," Sasuke sobs, thick tears dropping onto Itachi's shoulder, bleeding through the cloth of his shirt. "I don't want him to die! What do we do? How do we help him?"

Itachi holds Sasuke closer. Wishing that by wrapping his body around Sasuke's he could physically protect him from anything and everything that could attempt to hurt him. He knows that he can't, but he wished that it was possible.

"We have to be strong, Sasuke," Itachi says, rocking back and forth slowly. He's not sure who he's really saying this for, Sasuke or himself, but he knows that he at least needs to hear it. Because strong isn't exactly how he's been feeling these last few days. He feels flimsy, defeated, weak. But it does make him feel a little better to be able to comfort someone. It helps make him feel better. At least a little bit.

"But what if dad dies? I don't want him to die, nii-san!" Sasuke sobs, rubbing his snotty nose into Itachi's shoulder.

He doesn't mind, opting to pet down his little brother's hair instead of being upset. "Lady Tsunade is a legendary healer, Sasuke, if anyone can save Father, it would be him." That he also wasn't sure who he was saying to, Sasuke or himself. But he also needed to hear it too. He needs to find the strength to keep going on, he's not sure what else to do other than push onward.

Sasuke pulls back a bit to look up at Itachi, tears still streaming down his baby-soft cheeks in huge globs. His watery black eyes study Itachi's face, trying to find a hint of a lie in his words. Itachi doesn't know from personal experience, but he has heard the legend of Tsunade Senju and has heard that she is beyond compare in the medical field. She was the best of the absolute best. So he meant what he said, if Tsunade couldn't help his father, then no one would be able to.

"She can save him?" Sasuke asks, hopefully.

Itachi is scared to offer false hope. He's scared to say the words and jinx them. By saying what he hopes for, he may accidentally strip them of their truth. Prevent it from coming true.

He wants so badly for her to be able to save him.

"We just have to let her do her thing if anyone can save him, it's her," Itachi says, looking over at Kakashi and Shisui. The latter of the two scooting a bit closer and putting a hand on Itachi's other shoulder, the one conveniently not covered in snot and salty tears. In Shisui's remaining dark eye is sadness, and hope. He won't say the words either, he won't jinx them either.

But there is also something comforting there. Something in his eyes that belies his worry, but also his support and love. No matter what, he was going to be there for them. However this turns out, they are all in this together. A subtle nod from Kakashi shows that he's in on it too. They are in this for the long haul, however long that may be. They have made their choice. At least most of them have. The rest, more specifically the kids, had the choice made for them. But they all will have to accept it.

Sasuke looks a mixture of terrified and hopeful. Looking exactly like Itachi felt. Except Itachi was scared to be hopeful too.

"Should I go check on them..?" Itachi asks, looking over at the tent that his parents were in to see the dozen or so people all gathered around but offering a bit of respectful distance so as not to be in the way. But they are all curious and worried. These people were really growing on Itachi. Even in the few short days that they have been around.

"No," Kakashi shakes his head. "You need to go lay down and rest."

"Not going to happen," Itachi says almost immediately after Kakashi stopped. "How am I going to rest when - "

Kakashi holds up his hand, stopping the thirteen-year-old from continuing. "Listen, I know you've been so riled up these last few days, we all have, but I also know that you haven't slept a wink since then. You have to get some sleep, Itachi. We can't afford to have you at anything less than your best. If we get attacked tomorrow, you are going to be more of a liability than the help that we desperately need." Kakashi stares into the dark haired teen with a single black eye.

"I can't just -" Itachi starts again, but Kakashi is already shaking his head.

"You don't have a choice. You can't do anything, and you're exhausted. We will keep an eye on your parents, and speak with Lady Tsunade, but you need to get rest, especially in the next few days."

Itachi shakes his head back. "I can't. They need me."

"They need you at your best." Kakashi reaches up and rubs at the back of his neck. "You won't be able to do anything for them now, Lord Fugaku is in Lady Tsunade's hands, and in the future, without adequate rest, you are going to be no help to anyone." Itachi wants to argue, but Shisui jumps in on it too.

"I'll hang around to make sure Uncle Fugaku and Aunt Mikoto are alright. You need to rest, Itachi. I'll wake you if something happens, alright?" Shisui squeezes Itachi's shoulder meaningfully.

Itachi wants to deny it, he wants to argue, because he is tired. He is exhausted. But he doesn't want to sleep - how could he sleep when he needs to be looking after his family?

"Go," Shisui says, patting Itachi's shoulder again. "Get some rest. I will wake you if we need you."

Itachi sighs, not wanting to, but his body keeps latching onto the idea of getting some sleep. He's just so tired, he's been running on fumes for days. He can't stay awake any longer.

"I don't want to abandon them," Itachi says, trying hard to force down a yawn but once he's started he can't stop. Yawning again and again and again, so much so that his eyes water. Sasuke stares at him with long dark lashes flickering like butterfly wings.

"Are you sleepy, nii-san?" Sasuke asks. "Are you not sleeping?"

Itachi yawns again, hugging Sasuke again. "I'm okay." He turns his dark eyes toward the tent where his parents are, wanting nothing more than to go over there and make sure that they are alright.

"Go rest, Itachi," Kakashi says.

"I'm too anxious," Itachi says softly, shaking his head. "I don't think I'm going to be able to."

Kakashi snorts. "I think that option has been taken away from you. Your body is so tired that it doesn't matter if your mind is racing, you are just going to fall asleep before your head even touches the pillow."

"We will come to get you if something happens," Shisui says. "For now, we have to leave Uncle Fugaku in Lady Tsunade's hands. Let her do her thing, and hope that we aren't too late."

Itachi sighs in defeat, not having the energy to do anything, even fight with his senpai and best friend. He pulls back to look at Sasuke. "Go and get the others and head back to your tent, I'll be in there soon."

"But nii-san..." Sasuke says slowly, still looking troubled. "What about dad?"

"I'll check in on them before I come to bed, but Kakashi and Shisui are right. All we can do is trust in them. So go," Itachi murmurs, pushing Sasuke up onto his feet. Sasuke didn't look any happier about this than Itachi felt, but he didn't really have much of a choice in the matter. Neither of them did, it seemed. Sasuke trudges back toward his tent, hopefully where the others are, but if not, Itachi's going to trust Sasuke to gather them up.

Itachi pushes himself lethargically to his feet, really feeling these last few days crashing down on him.

"Itachi," Shisui sighs as his hand falls from his younger cousin's shoulder down to his own thigh. "I don't know if there is anything that we can do..."

"I just need to see, I can't do nothing," Itachi turns and heads for the tent with his parents in it. The crowd of people has dispersed, but there are still a few who are hovering, like that older woman that Itachi honestly couldn't remember her name was close by, to offer her aid if it was needed. She pets Itachi's arm as he walks back, offering a thin smile but says nothing, which Itachi appreciates.

He ducks low and peaks into the tent to see the four people, his parents, the strange dark-haired woman with Lady Tsunade and the Slug Princess herself. Oddly, though, the dark-haired woman was the one leaning over Itachi's father, while Tsunade was looking after his mother. Unlike Kakashi, who looked worried every time he tried to heal Fugaku, the dark-haired woman's expression was cool and calm. She wasn't the least bit concerned. Which was a relief to the thirteen-year-old boy. If she knows what she's doing, and she isn't concerned, then maybe he can rest a little bit easier than he thought.

He has so much to worry about, maybe he can let his father fall gracefully into someone else's loving hands.

Itachi backs off, feeling a little bit better leaving his father, who's face has finally smoothed out a bit in relief, with this strange woman. She seems to be helping his father feel better, which is all he could have asked for. He trudges to the next tent, seeing all the kids inside waiting for him. It's pitch black but he sees them shift to the sides of the tent, opening up space in the middle for him.

Itachi kicks off his shoes and crawls painfully slow in-between the four kids and lays down in the make-shift pile of blankets and pillows they have thrown about half hazardously. Itachi's entire body burns once he starts to relax, making him aware of just how tired and sore he is.

Kakashi is right. His eyes fall shut as soon as his right shoulder hits the blankets. They burn too, but he can ignore that as his heart immediately starts to slow down. It slows down too fast, making him jolt awake but then it begins to slow down again.

"Itachi-nii...?" Naruto whispers somewhere behind him.

"Hm?" He can't even open his eyes, he doesn't have the strength.

"It's okay," Naruto says, snuggling up against Itachi's back. "It's okay. We'll protect you."

Sasuke crawls into Itachi's arms, pressing close. "We'll be okay, Nii-san."

"We're with you," Sakura says softly from behind him.

"You mu-must be tired..." Hinata whispers on the other side of Sasuke. "We c-c-can keep watch tonight."

Itachi isn't sure he understands what they are saying - or if they even know what they are saying - but their words are comforting enough that he is able to easily fall into blackness. No dreams, no nightmares, no nothing. He wasn't sure that he would be able to wake up when morning came, especially since he hasn't slept in the last few days, but he did wake up when someone reached out and touched his hip, giving it a little shake. Or maybe it was a lot of shaking, but he only felt enough to wake up.

He peers through blurry eyes at a shape suspiciously like his mother.

"Mother..." Itachi rasps, his voice rough from his deep sleep. "Is Father okay..?"

"Yes, baby," Mikoto's voice comes through softly. She crawls in a bit, reaching up and petting the soft skin on his cheek. Itachi isn't out of it enough to miss the relief in her voice. "He's still in a lot of pain and he won't be able to be moved for a few days, but Lady Tsunade says these next few hours are the most crucial, but Lady Shizune did good work and he is already starting to recover. He's sleeping now too."

"Are we leaving now..?" Itachi thinks about moving to sit up, but that thought was so exhausting that he couldn't even more. He blinks slowly, but his eyes are already starting to close again. Each blink is taking longer and longer to follow through.

"No, Itachi, I just wanted to tell you. It's not dawn yet," she says, petting his cheek again. "Go back to sleep, okay?"

He doesn't take much convincing before his eyes slip closed and he's out again. Once again, he falls into slumber. Still no dreams, no nightmares, no nothing.

Itachi honestly doesn't remember being moved or waking up again, but when he does come to again, he's on the back of a carriage, rocking back and forth. He is exhausted, more so than when he first went to sleep, but that was his fault. That's what he gets for not sleeping for days on end. He looks over and sees his father next to him, resting peacefully. His face is still a bit discolored, but his cheeks are redder than they were the last few days.

There is a strange woman sitting next to him with short black hair, and he can see other people walking around them, talking comfortably.

The woman looks over at him, seeing him shift in her peripheral. "Oh, hey!" She smiles kindly. "I'm glad that you're up. Your cousin said that you hadn't slept in days. How do you feel?"

"Tired," Itachi admits, forcing himself up into a sitting position. He eyes her up and down, trying to remember where he's seen her before, but he honestly can't remember. She isn't part of this group they're traveling with, she's a shinobi.

"I would expect so, you were out cold," the woman says, still smiling. "I'm Shizune, by the way. I'm Lady Tsunade's assistant. You're Itachi Uchiha, am I right?"

Itachi stares back at her. There isn't any point in denying it, seeing as he's probably been out for a few hours, long enough for them to talk to the rest of Itachi's party, and Tsunade already had him pegged as an Uchiha, even though he's never met her - at least as far as he remembers - but Tsunade and Fugaku know each other. They've worked together before. So there isn't a lot of room to lie.

Oh no. If they've heard about what Konoha has said Itachi did, then they've learned right away that the Leaf lied. And if they don't, when they learn the truth, they will learn the Leaf lied. Either way, they are going to know, and if they say anything to the village, then Itachi's family is in danger again. Oh no, especially since they seem to know the people that Itachi and his family are traveling with, which means that they will be able to tell Konoha where they are going, or who they are with.

Just by being here, Itachi knew that they were putting these good people into a dangerous situation, but if these good people try and protect Itachi and his family, nothing will spare them the ANBU's wrath. They'll die. And if Itachi and his family leave now, and Tsunade and Shizune tell Konoha that they were with these people, the ANBU will hunt them down and use them as a stepping stone.

Obviously, the ANBU hadn't picked up their trail - which is a miracle in and of itself - but that could change suddenly, and the thought alone gives Itachi an unbelievable amount of anxiety. It makes him sick to his stomach. What are they going to do?

Itachi swallows his fear and looks down at his father, noting that he does look so much better than he initially thought. That's a relief at least. He turns his dark eyes back to the woman on the other side of his father. "I am Itachi Uchiha. How is he?"

"Better," Shizune says, not a hint of a lie in her voice or on her face. "He's still going to need to rest, but he woke up about an hour ago and was able to hold down some broth, which is good. The blood loss and declining health these last few days have tired him out, so he'll be sleeping a lot to make up for it, but his vitals have been good and I decided to stay here to monitor him."

"Thank you, Lady Shizune," Itachi says softly, relieved to hear that his father was going to be okay. Kami really was listening to him. Itachi couldn't thank Kami and all the other Shinto Gods for sending Tsunade and Shizune to them, even if it may have screwed them over in the long run, at the moment it looks like Fugaku might just be okay.

"Lady Tsunade would like to speak to you when you're up to it," Shizune says, reaching over to pet something pink sitting beside her. Itachi blinks a few times as a little pink pig pokes her head up to squint at Itachi.

Itachi scratches at the back of his head, feeling his messy hair get tangled up in his fingers. He undoes his hair tie and runs his fingers through his hair to try and get some of the knots out. Once he's content that he is at least presentable enough to be seen, he slides to the back, about to push off the back of the carriage, before he pauses to glance back at his father, worried.

"Go on," Shizune says sweetly, "I'll stay with him."

Itachi hesitates, though, despite the kindness in her voice. But Itachi can easily rationalize this situation. If she wanted to kill him, she wouldn't have saved him in the first place. And as morbid the thought, it does make him feel a little bit better. She was the only thing that stopped him from dying, so it wouldn't have been all that hard to do - she could have just done nothing and let time do all the work.

Still, Itachi hesitates long enough for Shizune to say, "And if nothing else, I will let you know if anything changes."

"Alright," Itachi says slowly, pushing himself off the back of the carriage onto the dirt path they've been traveling on for days now, before turning and walking up along the side of it. "Thank you. I shouldn't be long."

Shizune smiles down at him. "Take your time. I'll be here."

The thirteen-year-old makes note of the kids running around playing in the back of the caravan with a few of the ninken who keep hearding them along, making sure they don't get left behind. That same woman, the one who starts with an 'M' was watching over them, laughing happily as she did it. Itachi wanted to call out to them, just to reassume himself that all four of them were okay too, but decided they were too busy having fun to be bothered by him. At least for now.

Itachi only makes it a few feet before one of the caravan notices him. Toru's dark eyes brighten at the sight of him. He pats the back of one of the men he was talking to before making his way over to Itachi.

"Hey, how do you feel, Itachi?"

His head was splitting, he was exhausted and he was hungry. "Fine. I'll live."

Toru grins. "Your cousin said you would say that."

Shisui did know him way too well. "How long was I out?" He forgot to ask Shizune.

"Over fifteen hours," Toru says, rolling up his long sleeves in order to try and cool down a bit. Itachi can feel the blazing sun beating down on them. He's going to need a bath, and soon. "We are going to be stopping for the night soon. You must be hungry. Do you want me to see if I can dig something up for you?"

As nice as that was, he couldn't impose any more than they were. "No, it's okay. I'll wait until we settle for the night." Toru doesn't look too happy about that, no doubt seeing Itachi as a child rather than a shinobi who kills people for a living. "It's fine, I promise."

Toru doesn't seem to convinced by it but lets it go for now. "Alright, but let me know if you change your mind." He won't, but he appreciates the kindness all the same. These people really were too kind for their own good. It sounds like they live in a tough enviroment being harrassed by bandits and highwaymen in their land, which also happens to be embroiled in civil war - which he's surprised that he remembered - and yet their first instinct is to offer their hand in aid rather than to be mistrustful.

Itachi's not sure if he should consider that foolish or not.

Toru keeps good pace with Itachi as his dark eyes search the caravan for the Slug Princess. "Where is Lady Tsunade?" Itachi asks.

"She was with my father talking, last I saw of them," Toru says.

Which brings up another question. "How did you guys know Lady Tsunade? Let alone where to find her?" Itachi looks up at the older boy, just about a man.

Toru smiles. "We've met with Lady Tsunade every time we came to the Land of Fire. She's an old friend of my dad's. So whenever we come to the Land of Fire, we take the same route and they meet up for a day at the casino. My dad isn't much of a gambler, but he will share a few drinks with Lady Tsunade while they can. He was hedging a bet that she would still be in that village as we passed by again. It wouldn't have hurt to check. And she's a powerful medical shinobi, so he knew that she would be able to help your father."

Wow, Kyobachi was friends with Lady Tsunade? Even though they seem like their village is really far away from the Land of Fire? There must be an interesting story in there somewhere.

"So he asked that guy to go ask Lady Tsunade for help?" Itachi says, still amazed at the coincidence behind it all.

"Kota? Yeah."

That was some luck. Itachi couldn't have orchestrated a better plan if he had a year to do it. Now Itachi just has to pray that this doesn't all blow up in his face. For now, they are safe enough, but he'll have to see what Lady Tsunade has to say about all of this.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am interested in hearing about your choice of pairings. You can check out my fanfiction page to vote there or drop a comment below.


	7. Protector

Itachi made his way through the throng of people until he reached the head of the group, old man Kyobachi with Tsunade on his right and Kakashi walking slowly a few paces back. Kakashi looks at Itachi from over his shoulder, giving him a once over, before nodding in approval. Probably happy that while Itachi doesn't feel all that much better, he probably at least looks it from days without sleep.

Tsunade looks at him, then Kyobachi does, through thick eyebrows.

"Good morning," Kyobachi says, smiling like a kindly old grandfather. "How are you feeling, my boy?"

Itachi reaches up, pulling out his hair tie and running his fingers through the long, thin strands. He catches a few knots but he yanks his fingers through them without minding. He's nervous, under the gaze of the woman who saved his father's life - or assisted Shizune in saving it? - because the weight of her eyes is almost heavier than the weight of this entire situation. Which is almost hard to believe.

But she could very easily destroy the very fragile grip they had on the safety that they have at the moment. He hadn't forgotten the conversation Shisui, Kakashi, and himself had before he finally had some rest. He knows that they are in a very dangerous situation right now. Tsunade could easily destroy them, and it doesn't have to be intentional at all.

"I'm okay," Itachi says, feeling like he has to. He doesn't really feel 'okay' but that was the only appropriate thing to say in this situation. He knew that he couldn't say what he was really feeling. Panic, fear, worry, anticipation, and anxiety. Oh, and guilt. There was a lot of guilt involved too.

But this wasn't about that. At least, not right now. He can worry about all of those emotions later. He'll let them flutter about inside of him until he can either over-power them or they will just go away over time on their own. For now, he's more interested in figuring out where they could be heading. He's not sure if somehow, in the middle of the night, they got turned around and now are heading back toward Konoha. One look up at the sun disproves his theory, but he's finding it hard to be confident in what he knows. He's still very much tired and knows that sleep would help, but he can't. He needs to know what the future holds for them.

He just needs to start to prepare himself for what they could be facing.

"We've been talking," Kakashi says, as if able to read Itachi's mind. Itachi feels his breath hitch in his lungs, but he tries not to draw attention to it, nodding for Kakashi to continue. "I had to tell Lady Tsunade the truth. She's... a human lie detector."

Tsunade rolls her eyes. "I can smell bullshit from a mile away, Hatake. It comes with age and the people you surround yourself with. Grow up with Jiraiya and you would be able to, too." She shakes her head before stopping and turning to Itachi. The youngest of the four nearly runs into her. He takes a step back to give her - and himself - space. The caravan behind him slows to a stop.

"Be kind, Tsunade," Kyobachi says, still like a kindly grandfather. "He's still just a boy."

Tsunade crosses her arms over her chest. "That's a heavy accusation you and yours put on Konoha," Tsunade says, narrowing her eyes as if Kyobachi hadn't spoken at all. That, or maybe this was her being kind. That's scary. "Kakashi is enough disconnected from this that I can take almost everything he says with a grain of salt. That other boy, he also seemed to have a lot of second-hand knowledge." She looks him up and down. "But you, Uchiha Itachi, are at the epicenter of all of this, aren't you?"

How unfortunately true that is. "I don't know what to say," Itachi admits. He still doesn't trust that just by telling the truth is going to help them. He's not sure any of them are in any position to take Tsunade in a fight, and he doesn't necessarily want to. But she saved his father's life, he doesn't want to lie to her. In some naive way, Itachi is hoping that by telling her, maybe some good would come of it. Even if she never went back to Konoha again, if she never spoke of seeing them, they may be safe.

So he told her the truth. Her and Kyobachi. At some point in the story, Kyobachi had ordered the caravan to stop for the night and they found somewhere to rest before Itachi continued. Neither of the two oldest in the group said anything while Itachi explained. As his story went on, the lack of reaction on both of their parts equally aggravated and worried him. He supposed it was to be expected if they were both to blow up and go crazy than nothing would get done - especially properly - but the lack of any reaction at all left him feeling his own emotions a lot clearer.

His lack of proper rest is probably also partly to blame. But he isn't going to let that throw him off.

Kakashi stayed with him the whole time, throwing in a bit of input when necessary but overall let Itachi tell the story from his first-hand experience. He mostly busied himself with a fire to help keep them warm. Mikoto joined them at some point, her limp significantly better, her ankle more tender than in pain any longer. Itachi was relieved to see that and accepted when she sat beside him and placed her arm over his shoulders, kissing his temple without verbally interrupting.

Itachi doesn't pause in what he's saying but there is a warm flush in his chest. He loved his mother, he's glad that she's here. He's spent so much of his life loving her from a distance that her being there now is a relief.

Mikoto loves him, Itachi knows this. But he also knows that Itachi grew up too quick for Mikoto's liking, and his independent nature made him difficult to dote and love on so there was always a level of disconnect between them. There was always love and respect, but not nearly the relationship that he would have wanted with his mother. Itachi has always been so worried about everything else that he never got the chance to spend any quality time with his mother. As insane as it is, somehow this is probably his chance to get closer to her.

Now that they are on the run and each other is all that they have.

Once Itachi told his story, Mikoto fills the two in on the Uchiha's real plan to leave the Leaf. That's the first time that Tsunade spoke up.

"Yes, I know about that law," she says crossing her arms beneath her large bodice. "It was one of the major fears of the other clans joining the alliance. It was one of the laws that the Daimyo added in the creation of the village. All the clans hold the ability. Even those that joined after Konoha was established. Are you saying that the Uchiha were invoking your right?"

Mikoto nods, moving her arm from around his shoulder to linking elbows with him and holding his hand. Itachi doesn't mind, closing his fingers around hers.

"Yes..." Mikoto says softly, looking down at the dirt, digging the tip of her shoe into loose soil. She had been without shoes when they left, but since coming to the caravan, the kindness of these people never ceases, and one of the few women loaned Mikoto a pair of shoes that are a touch too big, but better than nothing. Just another one of those things.

"To the old man?" Tsunade verifies.

Mikoto nods, looking up at Tsunade again. "Yes, we had a few meetings. He knew what we were doing. And yet... still we..." She closes her eyes, lashes getting wet at the memory of all the people that died. All their family that they'll never see again. She sniffles, running her other hand under her nose. She clutches Itachi's arm a little bit harder, but he doesn't mind. Mikoto takes a few breaths to center herself before continuing, "And they still killed my family. Murdered them in their homes like animals." Her breath is shaky as the memories threaten to overwhelm her with emotions.

Kyobachi reaches out and places a hand over Mikoto's in a very grandfatherly fashion. He peers at her through a bushy set of eyebrows with a remorseful, "I'm so sorry, dear. I wish it wasn't like this."

Mikoto accepts his kindness, offering him a watery smile. She takes a moment to try and collect herself, wiping tears away. "I'm sorry," Mikoto says softly. She turns her face into Itachi's shoulder to hide her face in embarrassment. "This is hard."

No one says anything for a long time. Itachi rests his cheek against his mother's head. He can feel the pain radiating from his mother and it settles like a bunch of hot coals in his gut. He's not sure if this pain will ever really go away. Itachi hated that it became like this. He wished that it had somehow played out differently. Anything would have been better than this.

"I can't believe this..." Tsunade says softly, looking troubled. She cups her chin in her left hand while supporting that elbow with the right hand. She glares down at the fire between them with frigid brown eyes. "What the hell is going on in Konoha? The old man wouldn't have easily bee tricked by Danzo or just jump to an unnecessary conclusion without reason." She rubs at her forehead, letting out a long sigh, her face drawn tight in worry. She doesn't look like she disbelieves them but...

"You don't believe us?" Itachi asks softly. He's not sure he would blame her. It's a crazy story, and if he hadn't actually lived through it, he would never for a moment entertain the idea that Konoha would betray their own. Senselessly slaughter innocent people and blame... well, him!

Tsunade looks torn between telling them she doesn't believe them in favor of her beloved sensei and the village built by her family, and something about their story that must make her wonder if what they are telling her is true. Itachi doesn't blame her for the indecision, but he does pity her. This is a predicament that isn't easy to maneuver out of. She came here to help them out of the kindness of her heart and a favor for a friend and they have twisted her entire world upside down. Itachi can't be mad at her.

That doesn't mean that he doesn't wish she had all the answers. She's Tsunade Senju, granddaughter of the famous First Hokage, Hashirama Senju. Somehow that should make her better than everyone else. Somehow that should make her have all the answers.

But Itachi knows that isn't realistic. And it's not fair to put everything on her when she really has nothing to do with this. He just... wishes that she would be able to somehow explain this to him. He just doesn't understand. A part of him is still holding onto hope that somehow he will wake up from this and it will all have been a horrible nightmare.

But he isn't going to wake up. This terrible reality is his own.

"I don't know," Tsunade finally admits, cupping her chin again. "I just can't wrap my mind around this. Nothing makes sense." She pulls her eyes away from the flames and looks around at the four people around her, the two Uchiha, the ex-ANBU Captain, and the caravan leader. "Just short of speculation or going back and demanding answers, I'm not sure what has to be done."

"We can't go back!" Mikoto gasps, grabbing onto Itachi's arm tightly with her long nails biting into the soft flesh of his forearm, turning large, frightened black eyes to the Senju Princess. "They will kill Itachi for something he didn't do and they may try and take Sasuke away from us!"

Tsunade shakes her head. "I'm not going to tell you to send your son to die - " she stops, blinking. "Who's Sasuke?"

Mikoto stares back at her, eyebrows pulled together. "My other son. Itachi and Sasuke are brothers. Konoha claims he's the only one who survived the Uchiha massacre that they also claim Itachi is the culprit for!" Each word rising in pitch until she's practically speaking in a tone only ninken could hear. Itachi grips her hand tightly, trying to help her calm down and to stop her nails from raking across his skin anymore.

She takes a few deep breaths, bowing her head a bit. She runs her free hand up and down his wounded skin in apology.

"My little brother is here with us," Itachi admits slowly. "I couldn't leave him. Root tried to kill them. They saw too much. I couldn't risk someone telling Danzo that they saw anything. I couldn't leave him there."

Tsunade holds up her hand to stop him. "Them? Who's them? I thought it was just your brother. So, Hatake, your parents, your brother, you, and who else?"

Itachi looks over at Kakashi, who stares back at him, offering a little shrug. How very helpful, senpai.

"My brother was with his friends when we were attacked by Root. I couldn't leave them behind, so I took them with us. Sakura Haruno, Hinata Hyuuga, and Naruto Uzumaki."

Tsunade stares at him, her thin eyebrows pulled together tightly. "Naruto...Uzumaki?" She stares into Itachi's black eyes with her own dark brown ones. "Who..?" She shakes her head. "Who is that?"

"He's..." Itachi starts slowly, not sure how to say this. "He's..."

"He's Sensei's son," Kakashi cuts in.

Now Itachi and Mikoto look over at him as confused as Tsunade is. Kyobachi looks around, not sure what to say, and just listens quietly, following along as best he can.

"He's..." Tsunade says slowly, her dark eyes widening, a flash of pain, and hope, in those dark depths. "So he's..."

"He's not Lady Kushina's..." Kakashi says softly. "He's Sensei's, but..."

"What?" Mikoto snaps. "What are you saying?" Her eyebrows are pulled together tightly. "Are you trying to say that Minato was unfaithful to Kushina? That he cheated?" Instead of sad, Mikoto now looks angry, and she's directing it at Kakashi. "Don't you dare speak ill of him! He loved Kushina! He would never betray her trust! He was your Sensei, Kakashi. Why would you say that about him?"

"Sensei's child with Lady Kushina died the day of the Nine-Tails attack," Kakashi says, his voice stiff and chilled, as if hating that he had to speak ill of the man he respected most in the world. "I don't know the whole story, all I know is that Naruto is his illegitimate child and It's jailor." He stares at Mikoto meaningfully, also sharing in Itachi's hesitance in just admitting to the burden that Naruto carries. The fewer people that know that the better. At least for now. Tsunade jerks in surprise, catching the hidden meaning, while Kyobachi looks between them still struggling to follow along.

"Have you lost your mind, Kakashi?" Mikoto asks, shaking her head, clutching hard to Itachi's hand as if it were the only thing that stops her from leaping over her son to the silver-haired man and throttle him until he sees it her way. "Minato and Kushina were married! He adored her! They have been in love since they were kids! He would never betray her!"

"You think I wanted to hear that?" Kakashi asks sharply. "That I wanted to hear the greatest man I know was unfaithful to the love of his life? I didn't want to believe it! But what else am I supposed to believe?"

"What?" Mikoto says incredulously. "Who told you that blatant lie?"

Kakashi is staring back at her with a narrowed eye. "The - " he stops. He blinks. Once, twice, three times, before the anger fades away and this terrible expression crosses his face. "The... Hokage..." He stares back at her with a wide dark eye. "The Hokage told me. He... insisted. I told him that Sensei wouldn't... that he would never... but..." Kakashi looks away, down to the dirt in front of him. Kakashi blinks fast as if trying to go back to that moment and try to see something that he could have missed the first time.

"Sensei said that?" Tsunade asks slowly, her voice flat. "He said that Kushina's child was dead... and that Minato was unfaithful?"

Kakashi doesn't respond, lost to his own shock and confusion.

"Why would the Hokage lie about the death of your sensei's child?" Kyobachi asks, keeping his voice even and under control. At least someone other than Itachi was struggling to follow along. "What is the point in doing something like that?"

"I don't know," Tsunade answers for Kakashi, seeing as he doesn't appear as though he's sure how to think straight. "But if he lied to me about Kushina's child being alive, I'm gonna break every bone in his body." Her eyes narrow dangerously.

"I don't get it," Kakashi mumbles. "I mean, it makes no sense. How could Naruto be Lady Kushina's? I thought they were supposed to have a daughter. Was it a mistake?"

"No," Mikoto says softly. "They were supposed to have twins. A boy and a girl."

"Wait," Itachi cuts in, "so does that mean that the girl really did die with them, or was that a lie too?"

No one responds. No one has the answer to that. Itachi can feel the anger circulating the group as more and more questions get put out into the air. No one has any answers for any of them, and that just makes it worse. Itachi's able to put the pieces of this conversation together enough that he's at least able to understand the basics of it. And it sounds like they are riding on top of a conspiracy that is a lot larger than they had originally thought.

Itachi's head is spinning right now. What else have they been lied to about? Nothing is making any sense. Now Itachi is more angry and afraid then he was before. If they were willing to lie about the life of a child, possibly two, then what else would they be willing to lie about? The answer terrifies him. Just how much did he not know?

What happens now?

"If she is still alive..." Mikoto asks softly, her face ghostly pale, "then where is she?"

"Oh, Kami..." Kakashi whispers. "Did we leave her behind in Konoha?"

"If she's still alive..." Itachi says slowly, his lips barely moving. "There is still a chance that they were telling the truth in that regard..." Not that he's sure that he would ever believe them.

"Even if they were telling the truth about Kushina's daughter," Mikoto whispers, "how could we ever believe them without proof?" She finally releases Itachi to run both of her hands through her hair. "I never thought about the little girl. I believed the Third when he said that the girl died alongside her parents. But what if that wasn't true? I can't believe that I just trusted him." She shakes her head, as if ashamed.

Itachi wraps his arm over her shoulders, wondering if there is any way to make her feel better. He doesn't have any words for her, which isn't strange for him, as he doesn't usually have a lot to say. But he wished at this moment that he was so much better with words so that he could somehow alleviate some of his mother's pain, but he just can't. He's stuck in the middle of this plot that he's not sure how to go about freeing himself and his family from.

"What are we going to do?" Mikoto asks softly, her voice breaking with emotion. "We can't go home. We can't stay in the Land of Fire. What do we do now?"

"You can stay with us," Kyobachi says easily. "We don't have a lot, but what we have, we are willing to share."

Itachi feels bad. He feels like these people have already gone above and beyond what anyone deserved to ask of them, and seeing as Kyobachi just learned that up until this point they had been lying to him and his own, he doesn't seem bothered in the slightest. Itachi can see it from his point of view, he probably seems them as broken down and frightened, lying their way to survival and so he is able to forgive them for their deceit, but Itachi feels like he's still in the right to be mad. Regardless of the reasons, they did put Kyobachi's people in danger by being wanted and integrating into their group. If the ANBU found them, there is no way to know if they would have allowed Kyobachi and his people to live.

If Itachi had to guess, they wouldn't have.

"We can't force you to take us in," Itachi says softly.

Kyobachi tilts his head, peering through his bushy eyebrows at the boy. "You are ninja, aren't you?"

The question catches Itachi off guard, not knowing how to respond to that other than to utter the truth with a soft, "Yes, sir."

Kyobachi raises an eyebrow. Er, maybe? It's hard to tell. "Then you could force us, couldn't you? As young as you are, you have the power to do that, don't you, boy?"

Admittedly, yes. He would probably be able to do it with a genjutsu, but he could just take someone hostage and go from there. He has a slew of skills that would assist him in lording over these people. It's how they do it in other lands. A shinobi finds himself in a village where there is none and hardly anyone knows anything about their abilities and he uses it to control them. Usually with threats and fear.

So technically Kyobachi is right. Had Itachi really wanted to force them into letting him and his family stay with them, he could have used a number of different means. The cruel reality is that those with power and without restraint will use that power to stomp all over the innocent and the weak and won't give a second thought to it. Itachi just hates that. And the fact that these people know this as probably part of their reality makes Itachi mad.

It's probably not Shinobi, as they seem to be very uncommon around those parts, but bandits and highwaymen and maybe even mob bosses are probably choking the life out of those lands, gorging them of all of their money and freedom.

"You and your people have been more than kind to us, Kyobachi-san," Itachi says slowly, "we wouldn't dare do something like that."

"I know," Kyobachi says easily. "You don't get to be as old as I am, boy, without learning how to read people. I knew from the moment I saw you what you were."

"You knew I was a shinobi?" Itachi asks dumbly. He wasn't exactly hiding it, but still, coming from people who weren't as familiar with Shinobi as people in these parts would be, was a bit surprising.

Kyobachi shakes his head. "I don't mean that. It's obvious that you were a Shinobi, you all have a type of walk about you, a look on your face too. But what I'm talking about is who you are. I didn't know your name, but I knew what type of person you were. And hearing just a bit about your story has helped me in reaffirming my original assumption."

"Oh?" Itachi grunts, not sure he could so easily be pegged in just a single glance. He would like to think he was a bit more complicated than that.

Kyobachi smiles through his thick mustache. "Yes, you, Itachi Uchiha, are a protector."

Tsunade said she needed some time to think and walked away from them not long after. Itachi couldn't blame her for not being able to get her thoughts in order, but he also didn't miss when she stood off to the side, watching as Naruto played around with the other kids, a sad look on her face. She didn't approach him or speak to him, just stared after him sadly, no doubt remembering the woman who brought him into the world and seeing her in him. Itachi and Mikoto went their separate ways not long after to see to the children and Fugaku. Itachi insisted on going to see his father, still anxious and worried about him even though Shizune kept to her word and watched out for him the whole time Itachi was away.

Itachi isn't sure what to think about Kyobachi's words. They weren't insulting in the slightest, but he couldn't help but think that they missed their mark. He wasn't a protector, he was much more like a killer. And he must have sold it well if the people of Konoha would honestly believe that he would just massacre his own family in cold blood for whatever reason they manufactured in order to make it look real.

"Hey," Shizune says, as she helps Fugaku into a sitting position. He looks like he just woke up.

Itachi climbs onto the back of the carriage with three bowls of porridge balanced in his hands as he crawls closer to them. He offers one to Shizune, mutely, which she takes with a nod of thanks and the other to his father.

"Thank you," Fugaku says, taking the bowl. He's looking better still. He's favoring his side, being sure not to lean on it, and he moves tenderly as if ghost pain remains, but he's starting to look better and better. "How are you feeling?"

"I'm fine," Itachi says, sitting down cross-legged in front of his father with the warm bowl on his lap. "You?"

"Better, thanks to Lady Shizune."

Shizune smiles, checking his side with a glowing green hand before excusing herself. Pausing only to ask Itachi, "Does your wrist feel better? I forgot to ask you when you woke up."

Itachi hadn't even noticed that his wrist no longer hurt. He nods. "Yes, it does. Did you heal it?"

Shizune nods. "Your cousin told me when he dropped you off that you had hurt it a few days ago. I'm glad to see it's better, but try not to be too rough for the next few days, if you would."

"Yes ma'am," Itachi murmurs. Shizune smiles and leaves the father and son alone. Itachi waits a moment, letting Fugaku take a few bites of his meal before he blurts out, "I told Lady Tsunade everything. Well, Kakashi, myself, and mother did. But, we told her."

Fugaku looks at him over the rim of his bowl, chewing thoughtfully before nodding for him to continue. So Itachi did. He recapped everything that they spoke about, especially the end, the revelation that both Kakashi and Tsunade were both lied to about Naruto.

"I just don't understand," Itachi says, pushing his bowl away from him, having only taken a few bites of it before he lost appetite once more thinking about the horrible situation they are in and how it somehow just keeps on getting worse and worse. "Why lie about something like that? It doesn't make any sense. You would think that Lady Tsunade coming back for her cousin would also attribute to her cousin's child, right? Why lie and say they're dead when we know one is alive?"

"It actually makes perfect sense," Fugaku says, laying down his own half-eaten bowl. At Itachi's confused look, he elaborates, "Tsunade could claim legal guardianship of Naruto, as Kushina's closest - and probably only - living relative, seeing as Minato had none. And with Naruto being as young as he was, she could take him anywhere she wanted. She wasn't forced to remain in Konoha. She had her Sannin travel rights, and while that was given to her by the Third, it was agreed upon by the Daimyo and he would need a good reason to revoke it."

Itachi stares at his father, eyebrows pulled together tightly. "So... they lied so she wouldn't take him away from Konoha?"

"If I had to guess," Fugaku says, shrugging. "It's one thing that he's Minato and Kushina's son, but he's also the Nine-Tails' Jinchuriki. They can't let him leave, but legally they wouldn't have been able to stop Tsunade. Not without telling the Daimyo, and that doesn't matter to him. He doesn't understand the depth of power that the Tailed Beasts hold because they aren't a part of the Imperial's reality, and cause he's an idiot."

Wow, so much for nationalism.

"They are ignorant," Itachi amends on Fugaku's behalf. They are already being hunted by Shinobi, they don't need to add Samurai onto that. While they seem to be doing alright so far, they don't want to push their luck any more than they already have.

"Yes," Fugaku agrees, "but it doesn't matter now. Naruto isn't going back there, and that's final. Besides, telling Lady Tsunade was probably for the best. If she at least understands our position, then she won't go saying anything about us to anyone or play dumb if the subject was addressed. We are good acquaintances through Minato and Kushina. I trust her."

And considering that they were just betrayed by a village that they lived in all their lives and trusted unquestionably - or at least Itachi had until they were utterly betrayed - that's saying something.

"Kyobachi said we could go and live with them," Itachi says after a long silence.

Fugaku nods slowly, looking down at Itachi without breaking eye contact. "Maybe we should. We need to get as far away from Konoha as we can. We have to protect the kids."

The kids? Yes. Anything for them. He will go wherever he needs to in order to protect them. All of them. Kakashi, Shisui and his parents included. If he could build a shield around all of them, he would. An impregnable shield to keep them all safe. Even the people in this caravan. He would protect them all too. They deserved that much at least.

Maybe Kyobachi is right. Maybe Itachi is a protector. At least for his friends and family, he is. So long as he can protect those that he loves he will do whatever he must. Even if he must become a monster to the rest of the world.


End file.
